Nifty drifts higher on upbeat global cues

Benchmark Nifty rose 53 points to close above the 10,500-mark today on strong foreign fund inflows, hopes of an improving economy and higher corporate earnings.
IT, auto, infra, FMCG and realty stocks saw robust buying.
Overseas, European stocks were trading higher, while most Asian stocks rose after Wall Street finished with modest gains.
US stocks rose yesterday, with the Dow Jones industrial average closing at a record high buoyed mostly by gains in bank shares and a slight pick-up in energy and materials.
The NSE Nifty opened higher at 10,492.35 and moved in a range of 10,538.70 and 10,488.65 before closing at 10,530.70, up by 52.80 points, or 0.50 percent, from its previous close.

It saw an intra-day movement of about 50.05 points.

On the sectoral front, IT rose by 1.47 percent, Auto 1.28 per cent, Infra 0.92 per cent, FMCG 0.89 per cent, Realty 0.52 per cent, Pharma 0.37 per cent, Finance Service 0.36 per cent, Private Bank 0.29 per cent and Bank 0.19 per cent.
However, Energy, Metal and Media fell by 0.27 percent, 0.50 percent and 0.18 percent, respectively.
Major index gainers were Tata Motors, Bharti InfraTel, Axis Bank, TCS, Wipro, Hero MotoCo, Adani Ports, and HCL Tech.
Losers included GAIL, BPCL, HPCL, IOC, Vedanta, Tata Steel, Dr Reddy's, RIL and Indiabulls Housing Finance.

The market breadth, indicating its overall health, was in favour of gainers. On the NSE, 1,021 stocks advanced, 784 declined and 45 remained unchanged.
Total securities that hit their price bands were 217.
Turnover in the cash segment fell to Rs 34,503.45 crore from Rs 40,832.14 crore as on Thursday.
A total of 32,706.41 lakh shares changed hands in 11,331,440 trades. The market capitalisation of listed firms on the NSE stood at Rs 1,49,82,295.75 crore.