The Sensex and Nifty ended higher on Tuesday, led by consumer durables and realty stocks, but the broader sentiment was cautious amid lingering concerns about the escalating North Korea crisis.
The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended higher by 107.30 points or 0.34 per cent at 31,809.55 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty closed up by 39.35 points or 0.4 per cent at 9,952.20.
Among BSE sectoral indices, consumer durables index gained the most by 2.32 per cent, followed by realty 1.56 per cent, oil & gas 1.02 per cent and metal 0.76 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were Coal India (+2.96%), Adani Ports (+1.6%), Bajaj Auto (+1.58%), Reliance (+1.34%) and Dr Reddy's (+0.89%), while the major losers were Bharti Airtel (-2.25%), Sun Pharma (-1.43%), Power Grid (-0.71%), Lupin (-0.43%) and Cipla (-0.37%).
Asian shares
Asian shares were mostly defensive on North Korea worries though MSCI's dollar-denominated index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up around 0.2 per cent due to gains in Chinese equities. Japan's Nikkei closed 0.6 per cent lower.
The US markets were shut on Monday on account of Labour Day.
At the domestic market, financials accounted for most of the gains. The Nifty Bank index rose as much as 0.6 per cent after ending 0.8 per cent lower in the previous session, but analysts warned sentiment was cautious overall.
“Markets are nervous and that is why they are not scaling new highs. There are a lot of inherent strengths whereby levels are not broken and markets continue to be in rangebound mode," said Vaishali Parekh, a research analyst with Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt Ltd.