The Indian equity benchmarks extended gains on Thursday ahead of weekly expiry of index futures and option contracts led by gains in Reliance Industries, which touched new record high of Rs 2,768 on the BSE. HDFC Bank, Infosys, ICICI Bank, Tata Consultancy Services and Bajaj Finance were also among the leading movers in the Sensex amid strong global cues. The Sensex rose as much as 764 points and Nifty 50 index reclaimed its important psychological level of 17,300.
As of 11:55 am, the Sensex was up 712 points at 57,750 and Nifty 50 index climbed 197 points to 17,333.
Most of the Asian markets were trading higher with Japan's Nikkei rising 1.07 per cent, Taiwan Weighted up 0.15 per cent and South Korea's KOSPI up 0.62 per cent.
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Overnight, Wall Street’s major stock indexes ended mixed Wednesday after another day of choppy trading, while Netflix lost more than a third of its value after reporting its first subscriber loss in more than a decade and predicting more grim times ahead.
The S&P 500 slipped 0.1 per cent after a late-afternoon fade, while the Nasdaq fell 1.2 per cent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7 per cent, having received a bump from IBM, which added 7.1 per cent after reporting quarterly results that beat analysts’ estimates.
Back home, buying was visible across sectors as all the 15 sector gauges, barring the measure of metal shares, were trading higher led by the Nifty PSU Bank index's 1 per cent gain. Nifty Realty, Pharma, Private Bank, Healthcare, Consumer Durables, Oil & Gas, Auto and Bank indices also rose between 0.5-1 per cent.
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Broader markets were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.8 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index climbed 0.8 per cent.
Reliance Industries was among the top Nifty gainer, the stock advanced as much as 2 per cent to hit record high of Rs 2,774.90 on the National Stock Exchange after its telecom arm Reliance Jio took a lead over Bharti Airtel to become the country's second-largest fixed-line service provider in February 2022, according to data published by the sector regulator Trai.
Fixed-line or wireline telecommunication refers to telephone and broadband internet services provided through a network of cables.
Coal India, IndusInd Bank, Divi's Labs, Sun Pharma, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Asian Paints, Eicher Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, State Bank of India and Adani Ports also rose between 1-3.8 per cent.
On the flipside, Hindalco, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Nestle India, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Auto, HCL Technologies, ONGC, Cipla and Axis Bank were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,206 shares were advancing while 649 were declining on the BSE.
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