Mumbai: Almost erasing the initial sharp gains for a brief period, a fag-end burst of buying activity led the benchmark Nifty to close above the crucial 8,700-level on the National Stock Exchange.
Despite volatility investors took cues from higher global peers ahead of key two-day Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) meet starting today, expecting the outcome to be no early US rate hike in the backdrop of somewhat mixed US economic data.
The broad-based 50-share Nifty opened higher at 8,689.10 and hovered between a high of 8,742.55 and a low of 8,630.80 before settling at 8,723.30, a gain of 90.15 points, or 1.04 percent, over its last close.
Most of the counters witnessed buying activity mainly led by Pharma 1.89 percent, Auto 1.26 percent, Finance 1.45 percent, FMCG 1.38 percent, Auto 1.26 percent, Energy 1.25 percent, Infra 1.24 percent well supported by shares from MidCap and SmallCap companies.
However, IT segment witnessed profit booking.
Meanwhile, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) sold shares worth net Rs 762.55 crore yesterday, as per provisional data of the stock exchanges.
Elsewhere, most Asian markets traded higher amid overnight higher US markets.
Stockwise, the major gainers were Hindalco 5.88 percent, SSLT 3.99 percent, Dr Reddy 3.76 percent, Cairn 3.51 percent, IndusindBank 2.95 percent, Tata Motors 2.63 percent, HDFC 2.34 percent and LT 2.13 percent.
Turnover in the cash segment dropped to Rs 19,139.41 crore against Rs 16,725.88 crore yesterday. A total of 8,381.94 lakh shares changed hands in 76,04,442 trades. The market capitalisation at NSE stood at Rs 101,53,116 crore.
