Nifty gains for 4th consecutive day, up 28 points

Mumbai: NSE Nifty ended higher for the 4th straight session by gaining another 28 points, led by pharma, energy and media sector stocks amidst strong global cues.

However, rising crude oil prices and profit-booking towards the fag-end mainly in realty, PSU bank and FMCG stocks capped the gains.

Overseas, Asian markets ended higher, following gains in US equities overnight amid strong economic data.

European stocks recovered to trade half a per cent higher.

The NSE Nifty opened higher at 10,329.25 and moved in a range of 10,358.70 and 10,315.05 before ending at 10,326.90, up 28.15 points, or 0.27 per cent, from its last close.

It saw an intra-day movement of about 43.65 points.

Broader indices displayed a muted performance compared to the benchmark indices, the Nifty midcap gained 0.13 per cent while the smallcap posted an increment of 0.16 per cent.

Sector-wise, pharma rose by 2.22 per cent followed by energy 0.94 per cent, media 0.87 per cent, auto 0.36 per cent, infra 0.26 per cent, IT 0.17 per cent and metal 0.13 per cent.

However, realty slipped by 1.14 per cent, PSU bank 0.91 per cent and FMCG 0.59 per cent.

Major index gainers were, Dr Reddy, Sun Pharma, Tech Mah, UPL, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto, Cipla and Zeel.

Losers included, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Coal India, ITC, Ambuja Cement, TCS, Power Grid, Bosch Ltd and Kotak Bank.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was in favour of gainers. On the NSE, 970 stocks advanced, 767 declined and 76 remained unchanged.

Total securities that hit their price bands were 187.

Turnover in the cash segment fell to Rs 33,644.09 crore from Rs 36,807.32 crore on Monday.

A total of 16,573.99 lakh shares changed hands in 11,590,262 trades. The market capitalisation of listed firms on NSE stood at Rs 1,44,03,656.47 crore.

PTI