The Reserve Bank of India assurance to provide adequate liquidity in banking system improved the sentiment in the capital market on Thursday.
The Sensex gained 38 points to 19,894 after hitting the day’s low of 19,827 and a high of 19,997. Nifty was up eight points at 5,882.
In a short statement late Wednesday, the Reserve Bank of India said that it would ensure that banks have enough cash to support the flow of credit to productive sectors of the economy and that it was ready to buy government bonds from the market to provide liquidity when needed.
Nidhi Saraswat-Senior Research Analyst, Bonanza Portfolio, said the RBI statement came as an assurance after the banking regulator surprised the markets last week with a rate hike. Rate-sensitive stocks witnessed heavy selling pressure.
Selling pressure aggravated with futures and options positions got rolled over.
BPCL gained two per cent to Rs 312 on the BSE after two block deals aggregating 2 lakh shares were executed on the BSE at Rs 310 per share. The two block deals constitute 0.02 per cent of BPCL's equity.
Financial Technologies , which faced investor ire at the AGM held on Wednesday, gained five per cent to Rs 157 after 3.02 lakh shares exchanged hands in a block deal struck at Rs 154. The deal was worth Rs 4.65 crore.
Aarti Drugs lost eight per cent to Rs 181 after the company said it has recently received a warning letter from the US Food and Drug Administration.
Major gainers for the day include BHEL (8%), JP Power (6%), Oberoi Realty (4%), JSW Energy (4%), Indian Hotels (4%), Jaiprakash Associates (3%), Glenmark Pharma (3%) and Tata Steel (3%).
Prominent losers were HDIL (5%), Indian Oil Corp (4%), Reliance Comm (4%), Oil India (4%), Sobha Developers (3%), Berger Paints (3%), Godrej Industries (3%), Jindal Steel (3%) Adani Power (3%), Madras Cements (3%), Ambuja Cements (3%) and MCX (3%).