Benchmark indices ended with marginal gains in the range bound session on Wednesday. Investors remain cautious ahead of US PMI data and US Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at Jackson Hole Symposium.

Nifty and Sensex settle in the green, recording gains for the fifth consecutive session.

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At close, the Sensex was up 102.44 points or 0.13% at 80,905.30, and the Nifty was up 71.37 points or 0.29% at 24,770.20.

The Nifty opened 18 points lower at 24,680.55, compared to its previous close of 24,698.85. It touched its intraday high and low of 24,787.95 and 24,654.50, respectively.

Sensex opened 136 points down at 80,667.25 against its previous close of 80,802.86 and touched its intraday high and low of 80,952.83 and 80,626.38, respectively.

On Nifty50, shares of ITC, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, Titan and TCS ended as top contributors to the gains. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, UltraTech Cement and Power Grid ended as the top five drags.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices outperformed the Sensex, rising 0.43% and 0.87%, respectively. The overall market capitalisation of the firms listed on the BSE rose to nearly Rs 459.3 lakh crore from nearly Rs 456.9 lakh crore in the previous session.

Among the sectors, the Nifty Realty index fell 1.31% while the Nifty Bank declined 0.23%. The Financial Services index slipped 0.15% and the PSU Bank index dropped 0.43%.

On the gaining side were the Nifty Consumer Durables (1.41%), FMCG (1.37%), Media (1.20%) and Pharma (0.91%).

Nifty Pharma index to an all-time high of 22,587.95. With this, the Nifty Pharma index has surged over 10% in the past month, strongly outperforming the Nifty 50’s less than 1% up move.

Further the India VIX, which measures near-term volatility continued its decline, eased over 3.5% to settle at 13.3.

PNB Housing Finance surged over 9% after as much as 1.39 crore shares, representing a 5% stake in the lender, were sold in a block deal.

Shares of Varun Beverages, franchise partner of PepsiCo, gained 3.5% as the Bank of America Securities issued a Buy call on the stock with a target price of Rs 1,840 per share.

NHPC fell nearly a percent after a major landslide in East Sikkim caused significant damage to the 510-MW hydroelectric project on the Teesta river.

Domestic markets ended with gains tracking largely positive global cues ahead of the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, as expectations are high that US Fed Chair Jerome Powell will provide clear hints about the trajectory of rate cuts, which are anticipated to begin in September.

Focus is also on the minutes of the Fed’s last meeting. Powell hinted in the Fed’s last policy meeting that the rate cuts were possible in September.