Nifty hits 52-week high as telecom index gains over 3%

Benchmark indices extended gains with Nifty50 hitting a fresh 52-week high of 8,970.05 for the first time since September 2016 led by telecom index as Bharti Airtel hit an 18-month high on its plan to buy Telenor India.
                                     
Heading for a fifth consecutive week of gains, the street remained volatile ahead of expiry of futures & options contracts for the month of February.
 
Globally, Asian stocks steadied on Thursday after earlier losses, aided by a weaker dollar as markets studied Federal Reserve meeting minutes that indicated both readiness and caution over raising interest rates.
 

At 1:44 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 28,995, up 130 points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 8,969, up 42 points.

 
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices mirrored the gains in frontline indices and rose 0.5% each. 
 
Around 1,326 shares advanced against 1,271 declining shares on the BSE.
 
Telecom was the leading sectoral gainer, up over 3%  today on the back consolidation in sector. Bharti Airtel pared gains but was still trading 3.6% higher, after the stock touched its upper circuit, surging over 11% on acquisition of Telenor India. Idea Cellular also jumped over 7% while RCom was up over 5%.
 
Meanwhile, IT stocks recovered, with the BSE IT rising 1.7% after having shed 1.6% a day earlier. TCS, Infosys, Wipro were among the top gainers on BSE Sensex, up 2.2%, 2% and 1.9% respectively.