Sensex, Nifty End On Fitm Note, As SBI, IT Stocks Rise

(RTTNews) - Despite paring some gains after a bright start and a subsequent move up north, Indian stocks stayed positive right through the day's session on Thursday to end on a firm note.

Strong gains posted by IT majors, and PSU heavyweight State Bank of India, contributed significantly to market's firm close.

Investors looked ahead to the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy announcement, due on Friday. The apex bank is widely expected to hold the repo rate unchanged at 6.5%.

The BSE benchmark Sensex ended with a gain of 692.27 points or 0.93% at 75,074.51, about 225 points off the day's high of 75,297.73. The broader Nifty50 index of the National Stock Exchange, which breifly slipped into the red to 22,642.60, settled with a gain of 201.05 points or 0.89% at 22,821.40, coming off the day's high of 22,910.15.

Tech Mahindra (up 4.07%) and HCL Technologies (up 4.04%) were the top gainers in the Sensex. Infosys gained nearly 3%, while Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro advanced 2.25% and 2.1%, respectively.

State Bank of India ended with a gain of 3.5%. State Bank of India said in a filing to the stock exchanges that its board will meet on June 11 to consider raising up to $3 billion through foreign currency bonds issued abroad.

NTPC, Larsen & Toubro, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, Maruti Suzuki, JSW Steel, ITC, Bajaj Finance and Power Grid Corporation climbed 1 to 2.7%. Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finserv, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, Kotak Bank and Ultratech Cement posted moderate gains.

Hind Unilever ended down more than 2%. Asian Paints, M&M, Nestle, Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank also closed notably lower.

Adani group shares found some support again, after having tanked on Tuesday following actual poll results coming in far short of the predicted numbers for the NDA front.

The market breadth was quite strong. On BSE, 3,009 stocks posted gains, and 834 stocks ended weak, while 102 stocks settled flat.