Sensex and Nifty end higher for fourth straight session amid gains in IT shares

Indian equity benchmarks NSE Nifty50 and BSE Sensex ended higher on  Thursday, ending in the green for the fourth straight session.  In the intraday trade, Sensex scaled to record high for the sixth consecutive session; Nifty touched fresh lifetime high for the fourth day in a row. The gains in the headline indices were primarily led by IT shares, also supported by positive cues across global markets after Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday signaled towards slower interest rate hikes.

Both Sensex and Nifty scaled to record highs, but ended off highs — owing to selling pressure in heavyweights such as the ICICI Bank, Reliance and HUL — falling 298.9 and 75.1 points from day's high respectively.

The Sensex rose 184.5 points or 0.3 percent for the day to end at 63,284.2, having gained as much as 483.4 points during the session. The Nifty50 moved within a range of 18,778.2-18,887.6 in intraday trade before ending at 18,812.5.

Broad indices mirrored the gains in headline indices, with the Nifty Midcap 100 and the Nifty Smallcap 100 rising 0.8 percent and 0.4 percent respectively.

A total of 23 stocks in the Nifty50 basket finished in the green, with TCS, Infosys, HDFC Bank, L&T and Tata Steel being the top gainers.

Jindal Steel, Bank of Baroda, Chola Investment, SRF and Escorts Kubota were top Nifty Midcap gainers.

On the other hand, ICICI Bank, Reliance, HUL, M&M and Nestle were the top Nifty laggards.

"Bulls got more reasons to celebrate, boosted by favourable macro-economic data and strong global markets. The Indian economy’s growth of 6.3 percent in the second quarter of the fiscal was in line with the RBI’s forecast, while the manufacturing PMI rose to 55.7 in November. Global investors' concerns were allayed as the Fed chair adopted a dovish stance indicating slower rate hikes in the future," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Metal stocks continued the gaining momentum on China’s unlock plan. IT and PSU Bank stocks were the biggest gainers, while FMCG and Auto were the top laggards.

Overall market breadth favoured the bulls at the close, as 2,076 stocks rose and 1,408 fell on BSE.

The rupee ended 20 paise higher from its previous close at 81.22 against the US dollar.

European markets hit six-month high on Thursday after Fed signaled at smaller interest rate hikes. Stoxx 600 index was last trading 0.8 percent higher.

S&P 500 futures were up 3.1 percent, suggesting a positive start ahead on Wall Street.