In a very turbulent trade on Thursday, the benchmark stock indexes Sensex and Nifty finished higher due to the monthly scheduled expiry of derivative contracts. The 30-share BSE Sensex ended the day at 72,500.30, up 195.42 points or 0.27 percent. The benchmark fluctuated during the day, peaking at 72,730.00 and falling to 72,099.32.
The Nifty of the NSE as a whole increased by 31.65 points, or 0.14 percent, to end at 21,982.80. The top gainers among Sensex stocks were Titan, Asian Paints, Nestle, UltraTech Cement, Power Grid, Maruti, IndusInd Bank, and Mahindra & Mahindra. When Reliance Industries revealed that Viacom18's media and entertainment businesses would be merged with Star India, the stock closed more than 5% higher.
Among the backward companies were Axis Bank, Tech Mahindra, ITC, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, and Hindustan Unilever. Shanghai closed higher on the Asian markets, but Seoul, Tokyo, and Hong Kong finished down. For the most part, European markets were trading higher. On Wednesday, the US markets saw a little decline at the close.
"During the session, the domestic benchmark traded close to a flat-line trend, but by the conclusion of the day, some buoyancy had shown. Ahead of a busy week of economic data, investors took a cautious wait-and-watch stance, according to Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
Exchange data shows that on Wednesday, stocks worth Rs 1,879.23 crore were offloaded by foreign institutional investors (FIIs). Markets ended the month somewhat higher despite trading in a tumultuous manner, according to Ajit Mishra, SVP of Technical Research at Religare Broking Ltd. On Wednesday, the BSE benchmark dropped 790.34 points, or 1.08 percent, to end the day at 72,304.88. The Nifty closed at 21,951.15, down 247.20 points, or 1.11 percent. The benchmark for world oil, Brent crude, fell 0.43 percent to USD 83.32 a barrel.
