Sensex rises 235 pts, Nifty tops 17,800 in fag-end; Divis Labs zooms 10%

CLOSING BELL: Among sectors, the Nifty Pharma index leaped over 2 per cent today as India saw over 7,000 fresh cases of Covid-19

SI Reporter New Delhi

MARKET LIVE: Sensex extends gain, up 250 pts; Nifty50 above 17,800

Stock market highlights: Equity markets remained listless in trade on Wednesday, rising to the day's high levels in the last few minutes, as investors await CPI inflation data. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex closed at 60,393, up 235 points or 0.39 per cent. The Nifty50 index, meanwhile, shut shop at 17,812, up 90 points or 0.5 per cent.

In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and BSE SmallCap indices gained 0.57 per cent and 0.41 per cent, respectively.

Among sectors, the Nifty Pharma index leaped over 2 per cent today as India saw over 7,000 fresh cases of Covid-19. Within the lot, Divis Labs surged 9,65 per cent, Laurus Labs 7 per cent, Aurobindo Pharma 3.5 per cent, and Biocon 3 per cent.

Nifty IT, and Auto indices were other top gainers as they advanced around 1 per cent each.

4:07 PM

TECHNICAL OUTLOOK: Jatin Gedia, Technical Research Analyst, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas

The Nifty continued with positive momentum and closed with gains for the eighth consecutive trading session. On the daily chart we can observe that the Nifty have been stretching higher along the daily upper Bollinger band, which is now expanding, and this should be considered as a positive sign. The upmove in the front-line index has also been accompanied by participation in the broader market, which is also a sign of change in sentiment. The Nifty is currently trading above the 20-week moving average (17,789) and tomorrow if it manages to close above this level then it will further add to the bullishness. The best strategy to trade such an upmove is to hold on to the long positions with a trailing stoploss mechanism. For current long positions one can keep it at 17,700, which is around today’s low. As the short-term target of 17,800 has been achieved we have raised it to 18,000.

4:04 PM

MARKET COMMENT: Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

The domestic market exhibited cautiousness in anticipation of the release of various economic data and the upcoming Q4 earnings season. The IT sector drove the optimism in the market as investors await the earnings releases of sector majors. Despite expectations of a cooling down of CPI inflation to below the RBI's upper tolerance level, the persistence of sticky core inflation remains a concern.

4:00 PM

Over 2,000 stocks advanced on BSE, while 1,436 declined

3:55 PM

Nifty Pharma index best sectoral performer

3:50 PM

Broader indices outperform benchmark; India VIX climbs 2%

3:45 PM

Power Grid, NTPC, Nestle India top Nifty50 laggards

3:41 PM

Divi's Lab, Bajaj Auto, Adani Enterprises top Nifty50 leaders

3:38 PM

SENSEX HEATMAP | 17 out of 30 counters close in green

3:34 PM

CLOSING BELL | Nifty50 closes above 17,800 levels, up 90 pts

3:32 PM

CLOSING BELL | Sensex extends winning streak to eighth day, up 200 pts

3:25 PM

RBI to extend rate pause through year-end, likely done hiking: Poll

The Reserve Bank of India will likely keep interest rates unchanged at least until the end of this fiscal year, a Reuters poll of economists showed. READ MORE

3:17 PM