Markets settle marginally higher on buying in energy & telecom stocks

Mumbai: Market benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended with marginal gains on Thursday after falling in the past three days, helped by fag-end buying in energy, telecom and utility stocks.

In a highly volatile trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 64.55 points or 0.11 per cent to settle at 59,632.35. During the day, it hit a high of 59,836.79 and a low of 59,489.98. The broader NSE Nifty went up by 5.70 points or 0.03 per cent to finish at 17,624.45.

Among the Sensex firms, Asian Paints, NTPC, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India, Larsen & Toubro, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, ITC, HDFC Bank and Maruti were the biggest winners.

Hindustan Unilever, Infosys, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finance, Nestle, Axis Bank, Reliance Industries and HDFC were among the laggards.

In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge ended marginally lower by 0.03 per cent, while smallcap index climbed 0.10 per cent.

Among indices, services jumped 0.89 per cent, utilities climbed 0.85 per cent, telecommunication (0.81 per cent), power (0.74 per cent), industrials (0.63 per cent), capital goods (0.58 per cent).

Realty, FMCG, metal, commodities, energy, IT and oil & gas were the laggards.

Meanwhile, the rupee appreciated 7 paise to close at 82.17 against the US dollar on Thursday, as crude oil prices retreated from elevated levels.