Nifty settles below 9,800-level, up 19.65 points

Mumbai: The early rally lifted the Nifty NSE benchmark to over 9,800 level, largely on hopes of no impact on fiscal deficit after the government stuck to its budgeted market borrowing for the current fiscal year.

Nifty settled with modest gains of 19.65 points after witnessing reversal of course during fag-end trade, firmness in global stocks supported gains on the domestic bourses.

Sustained buying mainly in realty, metal, auto, infra and pharma stocks were seen while selling pressure was witnessed in FMCG and IT sectors. Overseas, most European and Asian stocks edged higher as investors focus on data releases and monitor US plans to overhaul the tax system.

The Nifty opened higher at 9,814.30 and moved in a range of 9,854 and 9,775.35 before ending at 9,788.60, up 19.65 points, or 0.20 per cent, from its last close. It saw an intra-day movement of about 78.65 points.

On sectoral front, realty rose by 2.65 per cent, followed by metal 1.39 per cent, infra 1.09 per cent, auto 1.19 per cent, pharma 0.67 per cent and media 0.72 per cent. However, FMCG and IT fell 0.99 per cent and 0.44 per cent, respectively.

Major index gainers were GAIL, Eicher Motors, HindPetro, AuroPharma, BPCL, Bajaj Auto, M&M, Vedl and BhartiAirtel. Losers were HindUnilever, Wipro, Dr Reddy, TCS, ITC, IbulHsgFin, Bosch, Hdfc and Reliance.

The broader markets outperformed benchmarks throughout session as both the Nifty midcap and smallcap indices gained further by 0.93 per cent and 1.39 per cent, respectively. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market was in favour of gainers.

On the NSE, 1,088 stocks advanced, 599 declined and 69 stocks remained unchanged. Total securities that hit their price bands were 140. Turnover in the cash segment fell to Rs 26,335.26 crore from Rs 38,254.89 crore yesterday.

A total of 12,320.92 lakh shares changed hands in 9,717,524 trades. The market capitalisation of listed firms on the NSE stood at Rs 1,30,45,716.34 crore. The National Stock market (NSE) will remain closed on Monday, 2 Oct 2017, on account of “Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti”.

PTI