Sensex, Nifty End Marginally Higher Led By HDFC, Reliance Industries

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes ended marginally higher in trade on Monday led by gains in HDFC, Reliance Industries, Axis Bank, Maruti Suzuki and ICICI Bank. However, the gains were capped as Tata Consultancy Services, Larsen & Toubro, ITC, Kotak Mahindra Bank and HDFC Bank came under selling pressure. The benchmarks fluctuated in opening deals and gained momentum in noon trading on the back of gains in banking shares to close marginally higher.

The Sensex ended 42 points or 0.1 per cent higher at 40,487 and NSE Nifty 50 index advanced 15 points or 0.13 per cent to close at 11,937.

Six of 11 sector gauges compiled by National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty Realty index's 1.6 per cent fall.

Nifty Media, Nifty Information Technology and Nifty FMCG indexes also fell between 0.6-0.8 per cent each.

On the other hand, Nifty Auto index was top gainer, up 0.8 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares underperformed their larger peers as the Nifty Midcap 100 index closed marginally lower while the Nifty Smallcap 100 index fell 0.8 per cent.

Bharat Petroleum was top gainer in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock rose 2.2 per cent to close at Rs 499.25. Axis Bank, Adani Ports, HDFC, Maruti Suzuki, JSW Steel, Reliance Industries and Indian Oil were also among the gainers.

On the flipside, Tata Consultancy Services was top loser, down 3 per cent to settle at Rs 2,060. HCL Technologies, Cipla, Larsen & Toubro, Zee Entertainment, IndusInd Bank, ITC and State Bank of India also fell between 1-1.6 per cent each.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,065 shares ended lower while 726 closed higher on the National Stock Exchange.