Stock Market ends higher for second consecutive session

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Stock Market ended higher for the second consecutive session on Thursday amid volatility, showing signs of stability after the Lok Sabha election results.

Sensex opened higher at 75,078.70, and closed at 75,074.51, up 692.27 points, or 0.93%. The index traded between a low of 74,474.94 and a high of 75,297.73 through the day.

Nifty 50 opened higher at 22,798.60, and closed at 22,821.40, up 201.05 points, or 0.89% trading between 22,642.60 and 22,910.15 through the day.

Investors are now awaiting the Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee decision on Friday.

Analysts expect the Central bank to maintain status quo for the eighth consecutive time, keeping interest rates unchanged at 6.5%, making the policy decision a non-event for the markets.

On Sensex, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, Mahindra & Mahindra, Nestle India and IndusInd Bank, were the top drags, while Tech Mahindra, HCLTech, SBI, NTPC, and Infosys, were the top gainers.

While on the Nifty 50, Hindalco Industries, Hero MotoCorp, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints and Mahindra & Mahindra, were the top drags, while Tech Mahindra, HCLTech, Shriram Finance, SBI Life and SBI were the top gainers for the day.

Among the sectors, Nifty FMCG (0.34%), Pharma (0.25%), Healthcare (0.08%), and Private Bank (0.03%) were in the red.

The sectoral indices with gains were Nifty Realty by 4.69%, followed by Media (3.68%), PSU Bank (2.92%), IT (2.83%) and Oil & Gas (2.37%). Nifty Bank also ended with a gain of 0.48%.

Shares of Heritage Foods were locked in at 10% upper circuit to Rs 601 for the second session in a row.

The dairy products manufacturers Nara Bhuvaneshwari and Nara Lokesh are the wife and son of the Chief Minister-elect, Chandrababu Naidu, respectively.

Further, the ITC shares gained over 1% to Rs 434 apiece after shareholders approved demerger of the conglomerate’s hotel business. Around 99.6% shareholders voted in favour of demerger, while just 0.4% voted against it, ITC said in a stock exchange filing.

Indian rupee ended 10 paise lower at 83.47 per dollar on Thursday against Wednesday’s close of 83.37.

Global stocks were on the brink of an all-time high and the euro rose ahead of what was widely expected to be the European Central Bank’s first interest rate cut in nearly five years.

Traders pushed the pan-European STOXX 600 up 0.3% in early deals and watched the MSCI 47-country main world index inch to within a point of a seemingly inevitable new peak.