Sensex ends 87 points higher; RIL, Yes Bank lead recovery

Among Sensex components, shares of Reliance Industries, India's largest company by market value, stole the show by surging 1.61 per cent to their highest in over three months.

Domestic equity market on Thursday witnessed moderate recovery after choppy trade as both Sensex and Nifty reversed their two-day losing spell on the back of gains in heavyweights  RIL, ITC and Yes Bank.

During the session, the BSE benchmark Sensex swung over 260 points both ways on alternate bouts of buying and selling by participants.

The 30-share index, after opening higher at 36,146.55 points, slipped into the negative terrain to crack below the 36,000-mark.

However, it staged a comeback on emergence of buying in late afternoon trade to close the day 86.63 points, or 0.24 per cent, higher at 36,195.10.

The gauge had lost over 470 points in the previous two sessions.

Similarly, the 50-share NSE Nifty closed higher by 18.30 points, or 0.17 per cent, at 10,849.80 after shuttling between 10,866.35 and 10,798.65.

Among Sensex components, shares of Reliance Industries, India's largest company by market value, stole the show by surging 1.61 per cent to their highest in over three months.

Yes Bank zoomed 8.39 per cent after private sector lender on Thursday named Ravneet Singh Gill, currently heading Deutsche Bank India, as the managing director and chief executive to succeed Rana Kapoor, whose term ends on January 31.

Stocks of cigarette maker ITC rose 0.43 per cent after Wednesday's steep fall over 4 per cent after the company announced its quarterly earnings.

Other gainers in the Sensex kitty include TCS, SBI, Axis Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Asian Paint, HCL Tech, Vedanta Ltd, Infosys, PowerGrid and M&M, rising up to 1.17 per cent.

Among laggards, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, Kotak Bank, Coal India, Bajaj Auto, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, NTPC, HUL, HDFC Bank, L&T, HDFC Ltd, IndusInd Bank, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Finance, fell up to 2.72.

According to Joseph Thomas, Head Research, Emkay Wealth Management, the market was in a tight range with no fresh news or triggers throughout the trading day.

The focus was more on the earnings announcements, which also did not give any surprises.

Sectorally, real estate, IT, PSU banks were among the top gainers.

"IT stocks continue to depict strength for the last few sessions amid weaker rupee and strong set of results delivered by major players in a weak quarter," said Paras Bothra, president, Equity Research, Ashika Group.

PSU banks derived strength from the liquidity-easing talks between the government and RBI, he added.

Among large-caps, Ultratech Cement missed consensus estimates, while Yes Bank shares were propped up after announcing MD and CEO, which was seen an overhang.

The bank also delivered decent set of results, he said.

Small-cap and mid-cap indices, however, ended lower by up to 0.59 per cent as investors were seen booking profits.

In global markets, most of other Asian markets ended higher, but European shares were lower in their early deals.

Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.41 per cent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.27 per cent, Taiwan's index gained 0.31 per cent, and Straits Times was up 0.28 per cent. However, Japan's Nikkei shed 0.09 per cent.

In the Eurozone, Frankfurt's DAX fell 0.32 per cent, while Paris CAC 40 was down 0.14 per cent in their late morning deals. London's FTSE too shed 0.24 per cent.

Photograph: Shailesh Andrade/Reuters