Sensex, Nifty Rally For Fifth Straight Day, End Near 3-Month Highs

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes rallied for fifth day in a row on Tuesday to end near three-month highs, powered by buying interest in banking and financial services shares. The benchmarks opened on a flat note, but gained strength in noon deals as heavyweights such as HDFC, Kotak Mahindra, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries witnessed buying interest. The Sensex rose as much as 563 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 9,996.

The Sensex ended 522 points or 1.57 per cent higher at 33,825.53 and Nifty 50 index surged 153 points or 1.56 per cent to close at 9,979.10.

Buying in HDFC, Kotak Mahindra, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries contributed nearly 400 points towards gain in the Sensex.

All sector gauges barring the index of FMCG shares ended higher, led by the Nifty Realty index's 5 per cent gain. Nifty Private Bank, Financial Services, Bank and Media sector gauges also rose 2.9-3.2 per cent each.

Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed buying interest as the Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 1.36 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 2.36 per cent.

Bajaj Finserv was top Nifty gainer; the stock rose 9.5 per cent to close at Rs 5,216. Zee Entertainment, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Motors, IndusInd Bank, GAIL India, HDFC, Axis Bank, Power Grid, Adani Ports and Vedanta also rose 3-9 per cent each.

On the flip side, Coal India, Maruti Suzuki, Bharat Petroleum, ITC, Dr Reddy's Labs, NTPC, Nestle India, JSW Steel and Hindustan Unilever were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 1,731 shares closed higher while 727 ended lower on the BSE.