Sensex and Nifty indices of Indian stocks closed on a mild up note today, thanks to buying in bank, auto, and cement shares, whereas IT and metal shares were a drag on prices.
The Sensex of BSE rose by 130 points to touch 77,185, while Nifty 50 of NSE moved up by 26 points to finish at 24,079, continuing to maintain its position above 24,000.
Breadth was also positive, with the advancers exceeding decliners.
The broader markets performed better than the benchmark indices. The Nifty Bank Index was up by 0.5% to reach 57,758. The Nifty Midcap Index gained 177 points to end at 62,943. Stocks in the cement sector witnessed heavy buying interest following their business performance in June quarter.
“Bank and automobile stocks ensured stability in the market as well as quarter-end reports from the cement sector ensured purchase of stocks in that segment.
But continuous in IT and metal stocks limited the gains,” said a market expert.
The stocks that gained the most on the list of Sensex shares include UltraTech Cement which gained 2.57%, Eternal (2.12%), Bajaj Finance (1.84%), Indigo (1.66%), and State Bank of India (1.63%).
Axis Bank, Asian Paints, and ICICI Bank too were bullish and their prices rose by 1.2% to 1.4%. Some of the other stocks which closed on a positive note include, Sun Pharma, ITC, Adani Ports, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HCL Technologies, Titan, Bajaj Finserv, BEL, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharti Artel, Maruti Suzuki, Trent and tata Steel.
Negative points Were that Infosys was the largest Sensex loser, dropping 1.24%, followed by the Power Grid Corporation, which droppe 1.08%. The other losers included TCS, which fell 0.58%, Hindustan Unilever, down 0.49%, and Larsen & Toubro, which was 0.34% lower.
The Indian Rupees ended almost flat at 96.255 per U.S. Dollar as compared to 96.20 in the previous day’s trade.
Crude oil prices also continued to attract attention. Brent crude increased by 1.29% to $85.82 a barrel, while WTI crude climbed by 1.05% to $80.17 a barrel due to heightened tensions in the Middle East.
“High crude oil prices have become a major issue for the indian equity markets. Given that India meets more than 85 percent of its crude oil needs through imports, strong performance in oil prices may lead to higher import costs and inflation,” he added.
According to analysts, fresh tension in the Middle East region raised worries about disruption of oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, leading to an increase in oil prices.
Even though there have been worries about increasing prices of energy and some heavyweight technology companies performing weakly, and cement stocks enabled benchmark indexes to close higher.
