Closing Bell: Sensex jumps 95 points, Nifty up 51 points

Indian equity benchmarks continued their rally for the first consecutive session on Thursday despite weak global cues and fag-end recovery in equities triggered by buying in IT counters. Key indices made a negative opening, as traders were concerned after the rupee opened at a record low of 83.05 against the US dollar from its previous close of 83 on Wednesday due to a stronger greenback overseas and unrelenting foreign fund outflows. Indices trimmed some of their losses amid higher treasury yields and continued jitters over sharp interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

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The Sensex climbed 95.71 points or 0.16% to settle at 59,202.90. During the day, it touched a high of 59,273.85 and a low of 58,791.28. The Nifty ended 51.70 points or 0.30% higher at 17,563.95.

The broader indices ended in red with the BSE Midcap index declining by 0.30% and the SmallCap index down by 0.01%. The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Oil & Gas up by 1.69%, Utilities up by 1.66%, Power up by 1.50%, Energy up by 1.39% and IT was up by 1.20%, while Consumer Durables down by 0.78%, Bankex down by 0.59%, Capital Goods down by 0.52%, Industrials down by 0.31% and Realty was down by 0.17% were the top losing indices on BSE.

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Top gainers from the Sensex pack were HCL Tech up by 2.22%, Tech Mahindra 2.14%, NTPC 1.89%, Power Grid Corp 1.73%, Bajaj Finserv 1.55%, Nestle 1.52%, Bharti Airtel 1.23%, TCS 1.09%, Infosys 1.03%, ITC 0.97%, Wipro 0.91% and Tata Steel 0.85%.

Among the laggards were IndusInd Bank down by 4.71%, Asian Paints 2.26%, UltraTech 1.50%, HDFC Bank 0.66%, Titan Company 0.56%, and Axis Bank 0.51%.

The Indian rupee recovered from its lifetime lows to close 25 paise higher at 82.75 against the US dollar amid weakness in the greenback overseas.

Asian markets ended mostly higher with the Hang Seng down by 1.40%, the Nikkei down by 0.92%, the KOSPI Composite down by 0.89%, and the Shanghai Composite down by 0.31%.

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European stock exchanges were trading on a mixed note in mid-session deals. US stock markets ended in the negative territory on Wednesday.

Brent crude futures, the international oil benchmark were trading 1.16% higher at USD 93.48 per barrel.

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According to stock exchange data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market on Wednesday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 453.91 crore.