Stock markets settle with gains; logs 4th day of rally

Hindustan Unilever, Power Grid, Axis Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, State Bank of India, Asian Paints and Wipro were the laggards.

Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended in the green on Thursday, climbing for the fourth straight day, amid fresh foreign fund inflows and intense buying in IT and telecom stocks.

Buying in index majors Infosys and Reliance Industries added to the optimism in the equity market.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 348.80 points or 0.58% to settle at 60,649.38. During the day, it jumped 397.73 points or 0.65% to 60,698.31.

The broader NSE Nifty advanced 101.45 points or 0.57% to end at 17,915.05.

“Market traded firm on the monthly expiry day and gained over half a%. After the flat start, the Nifty index gradually inched northward and finally settled around the day’s high to close at 17,915.05 levels. The majority of sectors contributed to the move wherein realty, IT and auto were the top gainers,” said Ajit Mishra, VP - Technical Research, Religare Broking Ltd.

From the Sensex firms, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra, ITC, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Titan, Reliance Industries and Nestle were the major winners.

Hindustan Unilever, Power Grid, Axis Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, State Bank of India, Asian Paints and Wipro were the laggards.