Sensex spurts 193 points; Nifty closes above 11,000-mark

Mumbai: The BSE Sensex furthered its gains for the third straight session on Wednesday, rising over 193 points to 36,636.10 on sustained buying mainly in finance, energy and metal counters.

The market sentiment has turned favourable weeks ahead of the general elections amid easing of tensions between India and Pakistan, analysts said.

Similarly, the NSE gauge Nifty also rose over 65 points to close above the psychologically key 11,000 level.

Among the Sensex constituents, 17 stocks rose and 13 counters fell. The 30-share index has gained over 768 points in the last three sessions.

Bajaj Finance led the Sensex chart with a jump of 2.60 per cent, followed by ICICI Bank 2.55 per cent and Reliance Industries Ltd 2.15 per cent.

Other scrips which lifted the BSE gauge were Vedanta, PowerGrid, HDFC, NTPC, ITC, TCS, Bharti Airtel, Coal India, M&M, SBI Bajaj Auto, LT, Kotak Bank and Infosys, rising up to 2 per cent.

Bucking the overall trend, Tata Motors slipped 2.81 per cent, followed by Axis Bank 1.72 per cent, HUL 1.38 per cent, HCL Tech 1.24 per cent and Hero Moto 0.96 per cent.

The Sensex started on a positive note at 36,544.86 in the morning and touched a high of 36,666.47 and low of 36,456.82 during the session. Intra-day, the index saw a movement of over 209 points. It finally settled the day at 36,636.10, higher by 193.56 points, or 0.53 per cent.

The NSE Nifty opened at 11,024.85 and hit a high of 11,062.30 and low of 10,998.85 during the day. The index swung around 65 points during the trading session. It closed at 11,053, showing a rise of 65.55 points, or 0.60 per cent. 

Analysts said buoyancy in the market sentiment is clearly evident from the last few sessions, where mid- and small-caps have come to the fore and started to outperform. 

They further said the market breadth has also improved on the back of participants sensing the possibility of the incumbent government retaining power, which provides policy stability. 

Meanwhile, Asian shares closed mostly higher tracking developments on the US-China trade talks front amid modest losses on Wall Street.

The Shanghai Composite index gained 0.9 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.2 per cent. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.54 per cent.