Markets rebound from two-days of decline as BSE rises 359 pts, financial, pharma key drivers

Mumbai: Equity benchmarks returned to winning ways on Thursday after two days of declines as investors snapped up financial, pharma and IT stocks amid firm Asian cues.

The 30-share BSE Sensex soared 358.83 points or 0.69 per cent to finish at 52,300.47. Intra-day, the index swung between a high of 52,346.35 and a low of 51,957.92.

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty climbed 102.40 points or 0.65 per cent to end at 15,737.75.

Bajaj Finance topped the Sensex gainers' chart, rallying 7.29 per cent, followed by Bajaj FinServ, SBI, IndusInd Bank, Dr Reddy's, Tech Mahindra, ITC and Kotak Bank.

On the other hand, Bajaj Auto, Maruti, HCL Tech, UltraTech Cement, PowerGrid, ONGC and Nestle suffered losses.

Of the 30 shares in the Sensex pack, 23 ended with gains.

Sectorally, BSE realty, healthcare, finance and telecom indices emerged as the top performers, with gains of as much as 3.27 per cent.

Broader BSE smallcap and midcap indices rose 1.73 per cent and 1.26 per cent, respectively. The largecap index followed with 0.73 per cent gains.

On the forex market front, the Indian rupee lost 9 paise to end at 73.06 against the US dollar on Thursday.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the capital market on Wednesday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 846.37 crore, as per exchange data.