Nifty, Sensex close at fresh all-time highs, oil stocks surge

Key benchmark indices Nifty and Sensex displayed slightly bullish undertone but remained range-bound in today’s trading. NSE’s Nifty 50 ended at 9,816.10 level, up by 0.31 per cent, whereas S&P BSE Sensex closed at 31,804.82 level, up by 0.18 per cent. Both the indices closed at their all-time highs once again.
 
The BSE Mid-cap index ended higher by 1.08 per cent at 15084.34, in line with BSE Small-cap index, which closed at 15897.01, up by 0.57 per cent. India VIX also closed higher 1.49 per cent at 11.05 level. 
 
ACC, Bharti Infratel, Ambuja Cement, IndiaBulls Housing Finance, Hindustan Unilever, ONGC, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, GAIL and Vedanta Ltd were the top gaining stocks in Nifty, whereas TCS, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp, Aurobindo Pharma, Coal India, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, HDFC, Infosys, ITC and Bajaj Auto were the top Nifty losers.
 
S&P BSE Oil & Gas was the top index gainer on the BSE, up by 1.54 per cent at 13856.06 level. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited was the top driver of the index, up by nearly 6 per cent at Rs 359.60, followed by Castrol India, GAIL and ONGC, up by around 2 per cent. The oil stocks surged on reports of HPCL-ONGC merger.
 
Energy and telecom sector stocks were also some of the stocks that gained in today’s trading session. Chennai Petroleum Corporation ended with a gain of over 9 per cent, while Onmobile Global, MTNL and Aksh Optifibre were up by around 5 per cent.
 
S&P BSE Information Technology was the top losing index on the BSE, down by 0.38 per cent at 10124.94. Most of the IT stocks traded in the red. However, Sasken Technologies continued its upward movement, hitting its 52-week high, up by over 13 per cent. Intellect Design Arena, Datamatics Global Services Limited and Polaris Consulting Services were some of the gaining stocks in the IT index.