Sensex ends 87 points up, RIL and Yes Bank lead recovery

Domestic equity market 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.

A significant gain in shares of Reliance Industries, Yes Bank, ITC, TCS and SBI, which rallied up to 8.39 per cent, largely boosted both the key indices. The 30-share BSE Sensex, after opening higher at 36,146.55 points, gave up all gains and slipped into the negative terrain to crack below the 36,000-mark, and touched a low of 35,996.68.

However, on emergence of buying in late afternoon trade, it staged a comeback to close the day 86.63 points, or 0.24 per cent, higher at 36,195.10 after scaling a high of 36,258.28. 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.

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 as yet. 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 probably derived strength from the liquidity easing talks between the government and RBI," he added.

Meanwhile, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, Coal India and Bajaj Auto were the top losers that capped the gains, falling up to 2.27 per cent.

Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) made purchases worth Rs 583.77 crore, while foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net of Rs 775.82 crore Wednesday, as per provisional data.