Mumbai, July 21 : Reliance Industries Ltd and Financials dragged the benchmark equity indices higher as investors pinned hopes on early vaccine for Covid-19, better corporate earnings during Q1 results and firm Global cues.
BSE’s Sensex closed 511 points or 1.37 per cent higher at 37,930 while Nifty closed 140 points higher or 1.27 upwards at 11,162.
The Markets were volatile but in sync with global cues, experts said and added that investors would remain cautious in the coming days and are expected to look out for progress in vaccines for Covid-19 treatment, direction of Global Markets, Q1 results and political developments concerning India and China at the border.
RIL went up 3 per cent to contribute the most to the Sensex’s gains. Financials — HDFC was up by 4.41 our cent, Kotak Mahindra Bank increased 3.04 per cent and Automobile Major Maruti Suzuki climbed 4.3 per cent — together contributing over 300 points in the Sensex rally.
At the BSE, 1243 stocks closed in the red, 162 stocks stood unchanged. BSE Midcap went down 0.22 per cent while BSE Smallcap rose 0.24 per cent.
BSE Energy was the topmost Sectoral gainer with a rise of 2.74 per cent, followed by BSE Oil and Gas which went up by 2.71 per cent. Bankex went up by 2.71 per cent, Realty rose by 2.03 per cent and Power increased by 1.96 per cent.
Among the top sectoral losers were BSE Telecom which went down by 1.85 per cent and FMGC came down by 0.72 per cent.
Shares of Vodafone Idea came down 8 per cent after Supreme Court had yesterday said it was not reasonable to give 15 to 20 years period for paying AGR dues by Telecom companies.
Bajaj Finance came down 4 per cent after it reported 19 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 962.32 crore for the first quarter of the current fiscal.
Rahul Bajaj stepped down as Bajaj Finance chairman leading to 6 per cent drop in stocks.
Meanwhile, Covid-19 confirmed cases in India touched 11,55,191 of which 4,02,529 are active cases, while 28,084 deaths have been reported so far.
