Sensex rises 120 points on oil & gas, healthcare, bank stocks

Mumbai: The BSE Sensex rose by 120 points in early trade on Thursday on sustained buying by domestic institutional investors mainly in healthcare, oil and gas, realty, PSU banking stocks.

The 30-share index moved higher by 120.62 points, or 0.37 per cent, to 32,307.036. The gauge had gained 524.44 points in the previous five straight session.

Sectoral indices led by healthcare, oil & gas and realty rose by up to 1.63 per cent.

The broader Nifty of NSE too was quoting higher by 38.75 points, or 0.38 per cent, at 10,118.05

Brokers said continuous buying by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) and retail investors following fresh records on Wall Street on hopes of movement on US tax reform strengthened the sentiment.

Major gainers were Sun Pharma, Axis Bank Lupin, Dr Reddy’s, Cipla, Reliance Industries, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, SBI and Adani Ports rising up to 3.69 per cent.

Meanwhile, DIIs bought shares worth a net Rs 725.90 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional data.

Stocks of state-run oil market companies such as BPCL, HPCL and IOC rose up to 3.47 per cent after oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan ruled out any intervention to disrupt the daily revision in petrol and diesel prices.

Globally, Japan’s Nikkei moved up 0.04 per cent, while Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.08 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 0.36 per cent in early trade.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.18 per cent higher on Wednesday.

PTI