Mumbai. The local stock markets continued to rise on Thursday amid buying in commodity, telecom and consumer stocks amid strong trend in global markets and the Sensex closed at 81,000 level while the Nifty closed above 24,800. The BSE benchmark index Sensex, based on 30 shares, closed at 81,053.19, up 147.89 points or 0.18 percent. During trading, the Sensex at one time rose 331.15 points to reach 81,236.45.
On the other hand, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) index Nifty closed at 24,811.50, up 41.30 points or 0.17 percent, registering a gain for the sixth consecutive session. Bharti Airtel, a Sensex group, was the biggest gainer with a gain of 1.63 percent. It was followed by Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, Titan, Asian Paints and UltraTech Cements. On the other hand, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC, Tata Motors, TCS and Power Grid were the biggest losers.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said, “The domestic market witnessed a slight increase due to positive global sentiments. Especially the signs of weakness in the US non-agricultural employment data have strengthened the possibility of a possible policy rate cut in September.” Ajit Mishra, Senior Vice President (Research), Religare Broking Limited, said, “The market is constantly monitoring the global indices for further direction. The recent slowdown in the US market before the Jackson Hole symposium is also being seen at the local level.”
The BSE Smallcap index related to the shares of small companies rose by 0.47 percent and the BSE Midcap index related to mid-sized companies rose by 0.67 percent. Among the sectoral indices, the telecom sector rose by 1.60 percent, the commodity sector rose by one percent and the durable consumer product sector rose by 0.91 percent, while the utility, power, oil and gas and information technology sectors declined.
In other Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei, South Korea’s Kospi and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed with gains while China’s Shanghai Composite closed in the negative zone. European markets were trading with gains. US stock markets were rising on Wednesday.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) again became sellers and sold shares worth Rs 799.74 crore on Wednesday. Global oil benchmark Brent crude rose 0.21 percent to $ 76.21 per barrel. On Wednesday, the BSE Sensex rose 102.44 points to 80,905.30 and the NSE Nifty rose 71.35 points to 24,770.20.