Fag-end buying lifts key indices

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended in the positive territory on Wednesday on buying in HDFC Bank and a largely firm trend in Asian markets. Fag-end buying helped the BSE Sensex climb 100.26 points or 0.15 per cent to settle at 65,880.52. During the day, it had declined 292.23 points or 0.44 per cent to 65,488.03. The Nifty advanced 36.15 points or 0.18 per cent to end at 19,611.05.

“Markets traded volatile and ended marginally higher, in continuation to the prevailing recovery phase. After the flat start, Nifty inched gradually lower in the first half, however, a strong rebound in select heavyweights pared all the loss,” said Ajit Mishra, SVP - Technical Research, Religare Broking Ltd. From the Sensex pack, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, Titan, ITC, UltraTech Cement, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Hindustan Unilever and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the major gainers. Tata Steel, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, NTPC and ICICI Bank were the major laggards.

“A spike in crude oil reverberated across the globe, reviving concerns about inflation and sparking fears of a Fed rate hike. This led to a surge in US bond yields, causing investors to shift towards the safety of bonds and reversing the buying trend of foreign investors in the domestic market. Nevertheless, the resilience of the domestic markets shone through as investors placed their bets on an improved outlook, ultimately helping the market recover from the initial shock,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.