Markets end higher; Sensex reclaims 26K

Hyderabad: Bulls are still in control of the markets as the investors are seen resorting to value buying thus taking the benchmarking indices higher by about 1 per cent on Monday. However, the investors remain cautious ahead of F&O expiry on December series.

Interestingly, the Nifty touched the resistance level of 7,900-mark as the buying interest seen on defensive stocks, said experts. Sensex closed higher by 195 points at 26,034 and Nifty gains 64 points to end at 7,925. Also, the broader markets performed in tune with index stocks with midcap, smallcap indices gaining between 0.2 per cent and 0.5 per cent, each.

On sectoral front, almost all the sector indices gained excepting metal lost. Pharma index gained higher with 1.81 per cent followed by energy 1.16 per cent, auto 1.13 per cent, bank 1 per cent, IT 0.78 per cent, FMCG 0.47 per cent, while metal index lowered at 1.08 per cent.

Pharma stocks were up basing on a report saying that the pharma companies to raise finances from markets in order to consolidate their position in 2016, as Dr Reddy's, Sun Pharma, Lupin and Cipla up between 1 per cent and 4 per cent.

RIL gained 0.6 per cent after its telecom arm Reliance Jio announced launch of 4G service for its employees under Jio brand. On the other hand, its rival Airtel and Idea came under pressure lowered up to 2 per cent each.

The gainers: Dr Reddy's up 3.52 per cent at Rs 3116.35; NTPC, up 3.38 per cent at Rs 143.75; Tata Motors, up 2.84 per cent at Rs 393.25; and ONGC, up 2.56 per cent at Rs 239.95.

The losers: Tata Steel, down 3.59 per cent at Rs 254.05; and Bharti Airtel, down 2.14 per cent at Rs 331.15.