The S-P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes resumed upside after a day's pause in the previous session, led by buying interest in pharma, metal and state-run banking shares.
The benchmarks had agap-down opening; however, buying at lower levels in banking heavyweights such as ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and State Bank of India, and index heavyweight Reliance Industries helped benchmarks rebound from lower levels.
The Sensex rose as much as 469 points from intraday low levels and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 12,607.70 and high of 12,735.95.The Sensex ended 0.2 per cent or 86 points higher at 43,443 and Nifty 50 index rose 0.23 per cent or 29 points to close at 12,720.Nine of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher, led by the Nifty Metal index's over 1.5 per cent gain.
Nifty Pharma, PSU Bank, Realty, and Bank indices also rose 0.6-1.2 per cent each.On the other hand, Nifty Media index was top loser, down 1 per cent.Mid- and small-cap shares witnessed strong buying interest as the Nifty Midcap 100 index rose nearly 1 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.8 per cent.Eicher Motors was top Nifty gainer; the stock rallied 7.5 per cent to close at Rs 2,526 after the company reported net profit of Rs 361 crore versus Rs 12 crore in the previous quarter.Bajaj Finserv, Coal India, Tata Steel, Divi's Labs, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank, JSW Steel and Grasim Industries also rose 1.6-3.7 per cent each.On the flip side, Tata Motors, Larsen - Toubro, HDFC, HDFC Bank, UPL, Adani Ports, Indian Oil, SBI Life and Bharti Airtel were among the losers.The overall market breadth was positive as 1,597 shares closed higher while 1,064 ended lower on the BSE.