The Nifty hit its highest in more than 11 months on Thursday tracking rising global markets, although broader gains were capped ahead of quarterly earnings and an expected government announcement about the next central bank chief.
The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended higher by 126.93 points or 0.46 per cent at 27,942.11 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty ended up by 45.5 points or 0.53 per cent at 8,565.
Among BSE sectoral indices, consumer durables index gained the most by 2.16 per cent, banking 1.48 per cent, PSU 1.12 per cent and capital goods 1.01 per cent. On the other hand, healthcare index was down 0.28 per cent, IT 0.17 per cent and realty 0.16 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were ICICI Bank (+2.72%), Maruti (+2.44%), State Bank of India (+2.00%), PowerGrid (+1.82%) and GAIL (+1.45%), while the major losers were ONGC (-1.53%), Infosys (-1.45%), M&M (-1.26%), Sun Pharma (-1.05%) and Cipla (-0.84%).
Bank stocks recovered from losses on Thursday, with Punjab National Bank up as much as 5.3 per cent and YES Bank gaining as much as 0.8 per cent.
Jewellery makers such as Titan Company and Gitanjali Gems rose as the government relaxed the excise duty rules.
Shares of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd were up marginally ahead of results later in the day. Infosys Ltd fell as much as 1.2 per cent after ending higher in the last four sessions ahead of results on Friday.
Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd lost as much as 2.4 per cent on worries growing competition would eat into its market share.
RBI governor appointment
Markets have been on edge ahead of the appointment of the next Reserve Bank of India governor, with local media reporting it could come as early as this week ahead of the start of a new parliament session on Monday.
WPI, retail inflation
According to government data published earlier this week, consumer inflation rose to 5.77 per cent in June, increasing the odds of the central bank keeping interest rates on hold next month.
Data on Thursday showed that wholesale prices rose at a faster-than-expected pace in June on higher food prices.
“There are not many factors left for markets to react to immediately, hence market is taking a breather now and we see some amount of consolidation,” said Saurabh Jain, assistant vice president of research at SMC Global Securities.
A report by SMC Global said: " Asian stocks swung between gains and losses as energy shares dropped with crude, while healthcare and consumer staple companies advanced. US stocks were mixed after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the telecoms, utilities and basic materials sectors led shares higher, while losses in the oil & gas, consumer services and technology sectors led shares lower. Japan's Cabinet Office cut its forecasts for growth and inflation for the current fiscal year on Wednesday as the government is set to unveil a new stimulus package for the feeble economy later this year, reports said. The growth forecast for the financial year ending March 2017 was lowered to 0.9 per cent from 1.7 per cent predicted in January."