The Sensex and Nifty ended higher for the second straight trading session on Friday backed by renewed buying interest in IT and banking stocks. Realty shares too logged strong gains, while auto and pharma shares signed-off on a weak note.
Among the Sensex 30 stocks, HCL Technologies soared over 3.5 per cent. UltraTech Cement, Nestle and Kotak Bank were the other major gainers, up over 2 per cent each. Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, SBI and Wipro were the other significant gainers.
TCS swung between zones and finally ended a tad in red at Rs 3,179, a day after its CEO & MD Rajesh Gopinathan resigned. Analysts caution against the near-term volatility in the stock price as the development comes amid a challenging macro-environment including fears of a potential recession in the US.
The 30-share benchmark index ended at 57989.9 up by 355.06 points or by 0.62 % and then NSE Nifty was at 17100.05 up by 114.45 points or by 0.67 %.
Sensex touched intraday high of 58178.94 and intraday low of 57503.9 The NSE Nifty touched intraday high of 17145.8 and intraday low of 16958.15
The top gainers of the BSE Sensex pack were HCL Technologies Ltd. (Rs. 1110.50,+3.58%), UltraTech Cement Ltd. (Rs. 7288.70,+2.53%), Nestle India Ltd. (Rs. 18870.95,+2.32%), Tata Steel Ltd. (Rs. 107.05,+1.90%), Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. (Rs. 1691.20,+1.63%), among others.
The top losers of the BSE Sensex pack were ITC Ltd. (Rs. 375.75,-1.51%), Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (Rs. 8310.75,-1.48%), NTPC Ltd. (Rs. 177.35,-1.25%), Asian Paints Ltd. (Rs. 2861.90,-1.14%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Rs. 957.75,-0.99%), among others.
Realty index was at 3199.59 up by 98.01 points or by 3.16%. Prestige Estates Projects Ltd. (Rs. 421.00,+5.20%), Phoenix Mills Ltd. (Rs. 1289.05,+5.06%), DLF Ltd. (Rs. 375.15,+4.21%), Macrotech Developers Ltd. (Rs. 892.35,+4.19%), Brigade Enterprises Ltd. (Rs. 470.00,+4.05%),.
Auto index was at 28211.26 down by -144.48 points or by -0.51%. Tube Investments of India Ltd. (Rs. 2545.45,-4.54%), Eicher Motors Ltd. (Rs. 2980.00,-1.83%), Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (Rs. 8310.75,-1.48%), Samvardhana Motherson International Ltd. (Rs. 67.81,-0.93%), Balkrishna Industries Ltd. (Rs. 1962.90,-0.92%),.
The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 3870 , shares advanced were 2169 while 1548 shares declined and 153 were unchanged.