Mumbai, India (BBN) – The Sensex and Nifty were trading higher by nearly 0.4 per cent due to buying by retail and domestic institutional investors and covering up of pending short positions ahead of February series F&O expiry later today.
At 11.20am, the 30-share BSE index Sensex was up 100.73 points or 0.35 per cent at 28,965.44 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was up 34.05 points or 0.38 per cent at 8,960.95, reports The Hindu Business Line.
Among BSE sectoral indices, TECk index gained the most by 1.75 per cent, followed by IT 1.41 per cent, consumer durables 1.22 per cent and realty 0.57 per cent.
On the other hand, power index was down 0.15 per cent and oil & gas 0.06 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were Bharti Airtel (4.68 per cent), TCS (+2.03 per cent), Wipro (+1.36 per cent), Infosys (+1.47 per cent), Sun Pharma (+1.46 per cent) and Wipro (+0.83 per cent), while the major losers were Reliance (-1.16 per cent), ICICI Bank (-0.79 per cent), NTPC (-0.78 per cent), Axis Bank (-0.71 per cent) and Power Grid (-0.62 per cent).
EARLY TRADE
The 30-share index, which had gained 709.15 points in the previous five sessions, rallied 105.54 points or 0.37 per cent to 28,970.25.
Technology, realty, consumer durables, IT, oil and gas and healthcare sector stocks were the major gainers.
Shares of telecom major Bharti Airtel zoomed 10 per cent after it announced the decision to acquire Telenor India assets.
Other telecom shares such as Idea Cellular rose 7 per cent, Reliance Communication gained 3.92 per cent and Tata Teleservices went up by 4.52 per cent.
The NSE Nifty also rose 30.25 points or 0.33 per cent to 8,957.15.
ASIAN SHARES
Asian stocks eased from a 19-month high on Thursday, while the dollar made an uneven recovery from losses suffered after Federal Reserve minutes indicated a cautious approach to raising US interest rates.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged down almost 0.1 per cent having jumped to its highest level on Wednesday since July 2015.
BBN/SK/AD