Sensex and Nifty wiped off early losses to edge higher on Thursday amid broad-based buying across sectors.

After a day’s ‘bloodbath’, Nifty 50 opened at 21,982.55 and touched its intraday high and low of 22,204.60 and 21,917.50, respectively. The index finally concluded at 22,146.65 with a gain of 149 points, or 0.68%.

Sensex opened at 72,570.10 and touched its intraday high and low of 73,364.30 and 72,497.19, respectively, closing the day at 73,097.28, up 335 points or 0.46%.

Analysts expect the Nifty to consolidate in the 22,400-21,800 range in the near-term, supported by outperformance of largecaps over mid- and smallcaps.

Mid and smallcaps strongly outperformed with the BSE Midcap index ending 2.28% higher while the Smallcap index jumped 3.11%.

At BSE, 2,722 stocks ended higher while 1,153 stocks fell, with some 83 stocks remaining unchanged. The overall market capitalisation (mcap) jumped to nearly Rs 380 lakh crore from nearly Rs 372.2 lakh crore in the previous session, making investors richer by about Rs 7.8 lakh crore in a single session.

Shares of Adani Enterprises was up 6.15%, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone up 4.83% and Hindalco Industries up 3.75% ended as the top gainers.

On the losing side, the shares of Axis Bank were down 1.79%, IndusInd Bank was down 1.41% and Bajaj Finance was down 1.18% closing as the top losers in the Nifty 50 pack.

On the sectoral front, barring banking and financials, all sectoral indices ended with gains on the NSE.

On the gaining side were: Nifty Oil & Gas (2.51%), Metal (2.01%), Media (1.94%), IT (1.87%), Pharma (1.45%), Consumer Durables (1.30%), Realty (1.11%) and Healthcare (1.09%) PSU Bank (0.72%).

While on the losing side were: Nifty Bank (0.33%), Private Bank (0.33%) and Financial Services (0.09%).

The Bank Nifty index witnessed a continued struggle between bulls and bears, indicating market indecisiveness.

The much-discussed shares of the railway rallied up to 15% on the BSE amid heavy volumes on value buying.

Indian Railway Finance Corporation, Texmaco Rail and Engineering, IRCON International, RailTel Corporation of India, RITES, Rail Vikas Nigam Limited and Titagarh Rail Systems rallied 8 to 15%.