India’s stock benchmarks pared its opening losses to close higher, aided by gains in banking, utilities and power stocks.
The Sensex added about 491 points (0.85%) to close at 58,410.98. The Nifty 50 added about 131 points (0.76%) to end at 17,317.
Today, 37 of the Nifty 50 stocks rose while 13 declined.
State Bank of India, NTPC Ltd., Bajaj Finserv Ltd., Axis Bank Ltd. and ICICI Bank Ltd. were the top gainers on the Nifty 50.
Hindalco Industries Ltd., Larsen & Toubro Ltd., JSW Steel Ltd., HCL Technologies Ltd. and Britannia Industries Ltd. were the top losers.
The broader indices underperformed their larger peers.
The Midcap and Smallcap gauges gained 0.26% and 0.09%, respectively, while the Largecap index gained about 0.75%.
Thirteen of the 19 sectoral measures complied by BSE Ltd. advanced with financial services, utilities, bankex and power gauges gaining the most, at over 1%.
The market breadth was skewed in favour of bears. About 1,614 stocks rose, 1,920 fell and 167 remained unchanged.