Mumbai: Powered by a rally in index heavyweight Reliance Industries, equity benchmark Sensex broke its four-session losing run to close above the 55,000-mark on Thursday despite a weak trend overseas.
Investors made a cautious return to IT, pharma and bank stocks after their recent sell-off. However, a depreciating rupee and persistent foreign fund outflows capped the gains, traders said.
Overcoming a lacklustre start, the 30-share BSE Sensex surged 427.79 points or 0.78 per cent to close at 55,320.28.
Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty advanced 121.85 points or 0.74 per cent to finish at 16,478.10.
Dr Reddy's topped the Sensex gainers' chart with a jump of 3 per cent, followed by Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Tech Mahindra, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Wipro and Infosys.
In value terms, Reliance Industries accounted for about half of the benchmark's gains.
On the other hand, Tata Steel, NTPC, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finance, SBI, Asian Paints and HCL Tech were among the main laggards, shedding up to 3.81 per cent.
The market breadth was in favour of the bulls, with 20 of the 30 Sensex components closing in the green.
Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude slipped 0.13 per cent to $123.42 per barrel.
The rupee depreciated by 6 paise to close at 77.74 against the US dollar on Thursday, weighed down by elevated crude oil prices and persistent foreign capital outflows.