Sensex gains over 150 points, Nifty hits 8,100 ahead of F&O expiry

The benchmark indices on Thursday rallied ahead of the expiry of December future & options contracts due today. 

Subdued trend seen in Asian markets after Wall Street suffered a mild setback capped the gains. 

At 3:12 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 26,381, up 170 points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 8,105, up 70 points. 

The broader market outperformed the headline indices with BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap adding 0.6% and 0.7%, respectively.

Market breadth remained strong with over two gainers against every loser on BSE. 1,526 shares gained and 890 shares fell. A total of 156 shares were unchanged.

"We expect 8,022-8,000 levels on Nifty to provide a decent support. With December F&O series expiring today, breaking 8,100 would be a daunting task for the market. However, sooner or later we expect the index to surpass this hurdle to extend the bounce-back rally," said brokerage Angel Broking in a technical note. 

Among sectors, BSE Consumer Durables (up 1%) was the leading sectoral gainer, led by gains in Blue Star (up 2.58%), Rajesh Exports (2.16%), Crompton Greaves (1.60%) and Titan (1.15%). 

Other gainers included BSE Oil & Gas (up 0.78%), BSE IT (0.68%) and BSE Basic Materials (0.67%). 

Among individual stocks, IFCI surged 13% to Rs 27.90 after India’s biggest bourse NSE filed its draft prospectus for a Rs 10,000-crore Initial Public Offer (IPO) of equity with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). 

IRB Infrastructure Developers rose over 2% to Rs 195.60 after the company said it received letter of award from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for six-laning of 90 km stretch of National Highway (NH) 79A and NH 79 in Rajasthan. 

India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) surged 18% to Rs 209 on the BSE in intra-day trade ahead of its listing on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday.