Stock Market: Sensex Gains Over 100 Points; Nifty At 19,850. Pharma Drags, Realty Tops

The two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Thursday pared their early gains amid volatility, tracking mixed global cues and the weekly Nifty options expiry later today. The Sensex and Nifty, which jumped high in the opening trade, erased some of their gains. At 10 am, the BSE Sensex quoted 146 points to 66,169. On the other hand, the NSE Nifty50 was trading at 19,851, up 39 points.

On the 30-share Sensex platform, IndusInd Bank, Nestle, Wipro, SBI, Bajaj Finserv, Asian Paints emerged early gainers. On the downside, UltraCemco, L&T, TechM, HUL, Maruti, Airtel were among the losers.

In the broader market, the BSE Midcap index added 0.4 per cent, while the Smallcap advanced 0.6 per cent.

Sectorwise, barring pharma and metal, all other indices are trading in the green, with realty index rose 1.5 per cent.

“The 10-year US bond yield hovering around 4.40 per cent and the declining volume of FII selling augur well for the market,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

In the Asian market, Nikkei, Kospi, and Taiwan gained 0.1 – 0.3 per cent, while Hang Seng and Shanghai indices slipped up to 0.7 per cent. The US markets ended with gains on Wednesday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 1.33 per cent to $80.87 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 306.56 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.

Meanwhile, the Indian rupee edged up by 2 paise to 83.30 against the US dollar in opening trade on Thursday amid a correction in crude oil prices and gains in local equities. The US currency also weakened against its major global rivals which supported the rupee sentiment despite FII outflows, forex dealers said.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened at 83.30 against the US dollar, showing a rise of 2 paise over the last close. The unit had closed at 83.32 on Wednesday.