Sensex and Nifty, the two key equity benchmarks, on Friday closed higher for the second straight trading session amid volatility, backed by renewed buying interest in IT and banking stocks. The domestic indices also got thrust from the gains of realty shares.
The S&P BSE Sensex gyrated in a range of 675 points, the index from a high of 58,179 slipped into red to a low of 57,504. The benchmark finally ended 355 points higher at 587,990. On the other hand, the NSE Nifty 50 moved 114 points higher and reclaimed 17,100 level.
On the 30-share Sensex platform, 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 major gainers. On the flip side, ITC, Maruti, Power Grid, NTPC, Asian Paints were among the losers.
Among specific stocks, TCS swung between zones and finally ended a tad in red at Rs 3,172, 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.
In the broader markets, the BSE Midcap was up 0.3 per cent and Smallcap index added 0.7 per cent.
Sectorwise, barring auto and FMCG, all other sectoral indices ended in the green.
In the previous session on Thursday, the S&P BSE Sensex at the end closed marginally higher by 79 points to 57,634. On the other hand, the NSE Nifty50, which dipped to a low of 16,850, settled 13 points higher at 16,986.
