Sensex Closes Higher For First Time This Week; Banks Lead Advance

The Indian benchmark started on a marginally positive note and continued the trading day by staying flat through Thursday.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended the day 160 points higher by 0.26% to 62,570.68. While, the NSE Nifty 50 was up 49 points or 0.26% at 18,609.35.

Out of the 50 stocks compiled by the NSE Nifty 50 index, 27 stocks advanced and 23 stocks declined.

Axis Bank Ltd., IndusInd Bank Ltd., Eicher Motors Ltd., Larsen & Toubro Ltd. and Hindalco Industries Ltd. were the top gainers on the NSE Nifty 50 Index.

While Sun Pharma Ltd., Divi’s Labs Ltd., Power Grip Corp of India Ltd., HDFC Life Insurance Co. and TCS Ltd. were the top laggards in the gauge.

The broader indices outperformed their larger peers with mid-cap and small cap gaining 0.43% and 0.32% respectively. While large-cap almost mirrored its larger peers, by gaining 0.27%

Twelve of the 20 sectoral indices compiled by BSE advanced, with S&P BSE Capital Goods, S&P BSE Industrials and S&P BSE Bankex gaining the most over 1%.

The market breadth is skewed in favour of the bulls. About 1,868 stocks rose, 1,625 fell, and 126 remained unchanged.

Source: Bloomberg, Exchanges