Sensex rises over 200 points, Nifty nears 17,600; banking, energy shares top gainers

 Benchmark indices were trading higher in afternoon session today, led by gains in banking and oil and gas stocks. Sensex rose 225 points to 58,890 and Nifty was trading 77 points higher at 17,581.

In early trade, Sensex gained 63 points or 0.11 per cent to 58727.43, and the broader NSE Nifty was up 31.5 points or 0.18 per cent to 17534.80.

NTPC, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance and Power Grid were among the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 2.43% in the afternoon session.

Maruti was the top Sensex loser, falling 2.01 per cent, followed by Tech Mahindra, Axis Bank and HUL.

Of the 30 Sensex shares, 19 were trading higher. BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices rose 85 points and 363 points, respectively.

On the sectoral front, banking and oil and gas stocks led the gains today. BSE bankex rose 620 points to 43,116 and BSE oil and gas index gained 279 points to 18,393.

On the other hand, BSE auto and IT indices slipped 106 points and 113 points, respectively.

The market breadth was positive with 2,357 shares trading higher against 831 stocks in the red.  160 shares were unchanged.

Market cap of BSE-listed firms stood at Rs 265.90 lakh crore.

On Tuesday, Indian market snapped four-day losing streak, backed by gains in metals and PSU bank stocks. Sensex ended 198.44 points higher at 58,664.33 and Nifty rose 86.80 points to 17,503.30.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 4,477 crore on November 23, and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,412 crore, as per provisional data available on NSE