Sensex, Nifty Snap Four-Day Losing Streak Led By HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes snapped their four-day losing streak, led by gains in HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Maruti Suzuki and Kotak Mahindra Bank. The benchmark indices had opened higher and gradually built on the rally to close near the day's highs. The Sensex rose as much as 806 points to touch an intraday high of 37,745.60 and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 11,112.

The Sensex ended 748 points or 2 per cent higher at 37,687.91 and Nifty rallied 204 points or 1.87 per cent to close at 11,095.25.

Seventeen of 19 sector gauges compiled by the BSE ended higher, led by the S&P BSE Energy index's 5.6 per cent gain. Banking, finance, auto, realty, consumer discretionary, healthcare and industrial shares also witnessed buying interest.

On the other hand, IT shares witnessed selling pressure during the session.

Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed buying interest as the S&P BSE Mid Cap and S&P BSE SmallCap indexes rose over a per cent each.

HDFC Bank was top Nifty gainer; the stock rose as much as 6 per cent after the Reserve Bank of India approved appointment of Sashidhar Jagdishan as Managing Director & CEO of the bank for a period of three years. He will be taking charge as the MD and CEO on October 27, 2020, the bank said. Sashidhar Jagdishan will replace Aditya Puri, who is due to retire as Managing Director of the bank on October 26, 2020.

Reliance Industries rallied 7.4 per cent to Rs 2,158 on the back of heavy volumes. As many as 20.53 lakh shares changed hands on the BSE, compared with an average of 14.90 lakh shares traded daily in the past two weeks. Reliance Industries alone contributed over 400 points towards gains in the Sensex, BSE data showed.

Zee Entertainment, Axis Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Hero MotoCorp, HDFC, Dr Reddy's Labs, ICICI Bank and Sun Pharma also rose 2-6 per cent each.

On the flip side, Tech Mahindra, BPCL, IndusInd Bank, Tata Motors, Grasim Industries and GAIL India were among the notable losers.

The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 1,706 shares closed higher, while 934 ended lower on the BSE.