Sensex gains 69 points; realty, banking rebound

The benchmark Sensex staged a mild recovery to end with gains of over 69 points, snapping its three-session losing run, supported by rebound in realty, banking and automobile stocks amid positive European cues.

Moreover, covering-up of short positions ahead of Thursday’s expiry of September series in the derivatives segment, too, gave domestic equities a push. But caution prevailed in markets with domestic investors and foreign funds anxiously awaiting the next week’s Reserve Bank of India (RBI) monetary policy, the first under new RBI Governor Urjit Patel and the first to be decided by the six-member panel.

After a subdued opening at 28,198.9 points, the Sensex quickly moved into the positive zone and hit a high of 28,378.6, before settling at 69.1 points or 0.24 per cent higher at 28,292.8. The 30-scrip gauge had lost almost 550 points in the previous three sessions.

The Nifty ended at 8,745.2, showing a gain of 38.7 points, or 0.45 per cent, after hovering between 8,767.05 and 8,703.15 during the day.

For the better part of the day, the Sensex moved in a limited range in view of upcoming expiry in the derivatives segment, brokers said. Shares of Tata Steel emerged as the best performer jumping 3.25 per cent to ~379.80, followed by Bharti Airtel 2.4 per cent to ~321.6. Other big gainers that supported the key indices were Adani Ports, SBI, ONGC, Tata Motors, Axis Bank, Bajaj Auto, L&T, Power Grid, M&M, ITC Ltd, Dr Reddy’s, GAIL, HDFC and NTPC, rising by up to 2.27 per cent. As many as 19 constituents in the 30-share Sensex gained, while RIL, Coal India, Hindustan Unilever, Sun Pharma, Cipla, TCS, Hero MotoCorp, Wipro and Infosys finished lower by up to 1.87 per cent. ICICI Bank remained unchanged at ~260.80.