Domestic equity benchmarks continued their robust trade during the late noon trading session with investors indulging in some brisk buying amid optimism about US Federal Reserve beginning to cut interest rates sooner than earlier thought.
Among key stocks, Mahindra & Mahindra is up 2.7%. Axis Bank is up 1.5%. Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, Tata Steel, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Steel and Reliance Industries are up 0.4 to 1.2%.
Meanwhile, Hero Motocorp is up 2.5%. Britannia Industries and MindTree are gaining 1.5% and 1.3%, respectively. Zomato shares climbed more than 4% after over 300 million shares of the company changed hands through a block deal this morning.
At 12:17 hours, the 30-share benchmark index was trading at 66662.86 up by 488.66 points or by 0.74 % and then NSE Nifty was at 20026.3 up by 136.6 points or by 0.69 %.
Sensex touched intraday high of 66666.27 and intraday low of 66374.52 The NSE Nifty touched intraday high of 20034.9 and intraday low of 19956.30.
The top gainers of the BSE Sensex pack were Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 1607.40,+2.65%), Wipro Ltd. (Rs. 405.40,+2.13%), Axis Bank Ltd. (Rs. 1039.50,+1.87%), Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 1221.45,+1.51%), HCL Technologies Ltd. (Rs. 1334.40,+1.34%), among others.
The top losers of the BSE Sensex pack were Nestle India Ltd. (Rs. 24105.10,-0.43%), Titan Company Ltd. (Rs. 3428.90,-0.38%), UltraTech Cement Ltd. (Rs. 8707.40,-0.24%), Bajaj Finserv Ltd. (Rs. 1653.55,-0.06%), Bajaj Finance Ltd. (Rs. 7124.80,-0.02%), among others.
Among the sectors, Oil&Gas index was at 20385.36 up by 259.46 points or by 1.29%. Adani Total Gas Ltd. (Rs. 731.85,+13.61%), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (Rs. 431.95,+1.80%), Petronet LNG Ltd. (Rs. 199.85,+1.73%), Gujarat Gas Ltd. (Rs. 433.10,+1.23%), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (Rs. 346.25,+0.98%),.
On the flip side, Realty index was at 5579.43 down by -18.06 points or by -0.32%. Phoenix Mills Ltd. (Rs. 2317.25,-2.90%), Sobha Ltd. (Rs. 881.30,-1.62%), Macrotech Developers Ltd. (Rs. 855.90,-1.39%), Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd. (Rs. 80.64,-0.93%), Prestige Estates Projects Ltd. (Rs. 956.60,-0.25%),.
The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 3909 , shares advanced were 2104 while 1645 shares declined and 160 were unchanged.