Nifty tops 11,600, Sensex continues to move higher ahead of F&O expiry; check what’s moving markets

Barring Nifty Auto index, all the sectoral indices were trading higher today

Ahead of future and options expiry of August series, headline indices BSE Sensex and Nifty 50 were trading half a per cent higher on Thursday. Sensex jumped over 200 points in opening deals to touch the day’s high of 39,326, while the broader Nifty 50 index breached the 11,600 mark on the upside and hit an intraday high of 11,617. Index heavyweights such as HDFC, Infosys, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank contributed the most to indices’ gain today. While, Hindustan Aeronautics share price fell 11 per cent in early trade today as the government planned to sell up to 15 per cent stake in HAL through an offer for sale (OFS), at a floor price of Rs 1,001 per share.

IndusInd Bank shares up over 3%: IndusInd Bank led the pack of Sensex gainers, rising over 3 per cent in morning deals. It was followed by HDFC, Tech Mahindra, Axis Bank and M&M, up in the range of 2-1.5 per cent. SBI, Infosys, ICICI Bank and TCS were among other gainers.

Bajaj twins drag: Top Sensex laggard was Bajaj Auto, down 1.72 per cent in the early trade. Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Finance, ONGC, Hindustan Unilever, Reliance Industries (RIL) and Bharti Airtel were among top Sensex losers.

Nifty PSU Bank up 1%: Barring Nifty Auto index, all the sectoral indices were trading higher today. Nifty PSU Bank index and Nifty Realty index were up 1 per cent. While Nifty IT index gained 0.80 per cent led by Tech Mahindra, L&T Infotech, Wipro and Infosys.

FII and DII data: On Wednesday, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,581.31 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth Rs 1,194.62 crore on a net basis, according to the provisional data available on the NSE.

Global market: Asian stock markets were trading mixed on Thursday. The Shanghai Composite was up 0.29%, while the Shenzhen composite jumped 0.83%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 0.63%. In overnight trade on Wall Street, US stocks surged. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3 per cent the S&P 500 gained 1.02 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.73 per cent.

Broader market: The broader market outperformed the equity benchmarks. S&P BSE MidCap index rose 0.57 per cent or 86 points to trade at 15,239, while S&P BSE SmallCap index gained 89 points or 0.59 per cent to rule at 15,061.