Benchmark indices on Thursday continued their winning streak with Nifty crossing 24,200, intraday. The performance was on the back of buying across the sectors led by auto stocks after December sales number.

At close, Sensex was up 1,436.30 points or 1.83 per cent at 79,943.71, and the Nifty was up 445.75 points or 1.88 per cent at 24,188.65.

Advertisement

On BSE, around 170 stocks touched their 52-week high including Eicher Motors, Lloyds Metals, M&M, PB Fintech, BLS International, Ipca Labs, Firstsource Solustions, Jubilant FoodWorks, United Spirits, Kalyan Jewellers, Anant Raj, Muthoot Finance, Coromandel International, Lupin, Welspun Corp, Laurus Labs, Lemon Tree, among others.

On Nifty, the top gainers were Eicher Motors, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Maruti, Maruti Suzuki and Shriram Finance while the key ones on the losing side were Sun Pharma and Britannia closed in the red.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices added a percent each. Investors’ wealth increased by around Rs 5.8 lakh crore, as the market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies rose to Rs 450.32 lakh crore lakh crore, from Rs 444.43 lakh crore in the previous session. All the sectoral indices ended in the green with auto index up 3.5 per cent, IT index up 2 per cent, while FMCG, Metal, Oil & Gas, PSU, Realty, Bank up 1 per cent each.

Auto stocks hit the fast lane with heavyweights like Eicher Motors, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, M&M, Maruti Suzuki, and Tata Motors roaring ahead by up to 7 per cent. Among some of the key performers, Eicher Motors rallied 7 per cent following an impressive 25 per cent increase in December sales to 79,466 units year-on-year.

Bajaj Finance stock jumped 6 per cent and analysts expect only a marginal uptick in Q3 credit cost to 2.2-2.25 per cent. South Indian Bank stock surged as much as 3 per cent after the gross advances rose by 12 per cent YoY to Rs 86,965 crore in Q3.

Britannia Industries stock was down by 6.95 per cent after the FMCG player reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 531.5 crore, down 9.4 per cent.

Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 22 crore, while on the other hand, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 1,507 crore, provisional data from NSE showed. US and European stock futures surged following a year-end selloff as traders returned from their New Year’s Day break.