Sensex ends 886 points higher, Nifty reclaims 17K; banking, consumer durables shares lead gains

Indian market closed higher today, backed by gains in banking and consumer durables shares amid positive global cues. Sensex ended 886 points higher at 57,633 and Nifty surged 264 points to 17,176.

Tata Steel, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank shares were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 3.63%.

 Asian Paints was the sole loser on Sensex, ending 0.22% lower at Rs 3,031. Market cap of the BSE-listed firms rose by Rs 3.46 lakh crore to Rs 260.20 lakh crore today.On Monday, the market cap fell to Rs 256.74 lakh crore.

On the sectoral front, banking and consumer durables led the gains. BSE bankex rose 1,034 points to 41,706 and BSE consumer durables index gained 765 points to 43,300.

All 19 BSE sectoral indices ended in the green.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said, "Domestic bourses staged a recovery bucking the trend in the international markets supported by broad-based buying while healthcare stocks lost ground. Global markets traded with optimism on reports that the Omicron strain may not be as severe as expected. Moreover, additional liquidity freed up by the Chinese Central Bank through policy easing boosted the Chinese markets."

The market breadth was positive with 2,331 shares ending higher against 946 stocks in the red. 117 shares were unchanged.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 3,361 crore on December 6, and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,701 crore, as per provisional data available on NSE.

On Monday, benchmark indices ended the session on a negative note amid a rise in the number of positive cases of Omicron variant to 21 in India. Sensex ended 949 points lower at 56,747 and Nifty closed 284 points lower at 16,912. HDFC, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Auto and Tata  Steel were among the top Sensex losers, falling up to 0.40%

Meanwhile, the rupee erased most of its initial gains but managed to settle marginally 4 paise higher at 75.41 against the US dollar on Tuesday as heavy buying in domestic equities supported the local currency.

 At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened strong at 75.31 against the greenback and witnessed an intra-day high of 75.26 and a low of 75.49 during the day's trade.

.Global markets

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 68 points to 7,313. Nikkei  ended 528 points higher at 28,455 and Shanghai Composite was flat at 3,595. Hang Seng index zoomed 634 points to 23,983.

In Europe, FTSE climbed 86 points to 7,318, DAX surged 321 points, and CAC rose 146 points to 7,011.