Sensex, Nifty end higher for third session; banking, auto shares top gainers

Benchmark indices ended in the green for the third consecutive session after falling in initial trade on Tuesday amid a mixed trend in global markets. Sensex gained 246.47 points to end at 54,767.62 and Nifty climbed 62.05 points to close at 16,340.

Axis Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv, IndusInd Bank, Tata Steel, UltraTech Cement and State Bank of India were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 2.35 per cent. Nestle India, HCL Technologies, Sun Pharma, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys, Dr Reddy's and Asian Paints were the top Sensex losers, falling up to 1.37 per cent.

Mid cap and small cap indices rose 157 points and 230 points, respectively.

Banking, auto and consumer durables shares were the top sectoral gainers, with their BSE indices rising 390 points, 252 points, and 160 points, respectively.

Market breadth was positive with 2,034 stocks ending higher against 1,274 stocks falling on BSE. 146 shares were unchanged.

Share Market update: Sensex rises 246 pts, Nifty above 16,300; Axis Bank, M&M top gainers

Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities said, "Bulls continued positive momentum third day in a row, the nifty ends 62 points higher while the Sensex was up by 246 points. Among Sectors, strong buying was seen in Reality and Banking stocks. Amid sectoral indices, Reality was the top gainer rallied nearly 2.5 percent. Technically, the Nifty/Sensex not only cleared the short-term resistance of 16,300/54,500 but it succeeds to close above the same which is broadly positive. in addition, it also holding higher bottom formation and on daily charts it has formed long bullish candle. The short-term trading setup is indicating further uptrend from the current levels. for the traders now 16250/54300 would be the trend deicer level. above which the index could move till 16,400-16,450/55,000-55,200. On the flip side, below 16250/54300 the index could slip up to 16,150/54,000."  

The market cap of BSE-listed firms rose to Rs 256.54 lakh crore on BSE today against Rs 255.39 lakh crore in the previous session. Foreign institutional investors turned net buyers on Monday, picking up shares worth Rs 156.08 crore, as per exchange data.

Meanwhile, the rupee recovered from its all-time low of 80.05 to close 6 paise higher at 79.92 against the US dollar on Tuesday. It hit an intra-day low of 80.05 during the session.

On Monday, Sensex rallied 760.37 points to settle at 54,521. During the day, the 30-stock index jumped 795.88 points to 53,760.78. Nifty advanced 229.30 points to 16,278.50.

IndusInd Bank, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank, UltraTech Cement, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and ICICI Bank were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 4.36 per cent. Dr Reddy's Lab, HDFC Bank, Maruti, Mahindra & Mahindra, Nestle, Hindustan Unilever and HDFC were the top Sensex losers, falling up to 1.70 per cent.

Global markets  

In Asia, markets in Seoul and Hong Kong ended lower, while Tokyo and Shanghai settled in the green. Markets in Europe were trading on a mixed note during mid-session deals. The US markets had ended lower on Monday.

International oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.57 per cent to $105.7 per barrel.