Nifty fails to hold 10,400, up 55.50 pts

The NSE Nifty ended higher by 55.50 points at 10,388.75 following sustained buying mainly in PSU bank, metal, pharma, auto and infra stocks.
Going by poll trends so far, the assembly election results are almost in favour of the BJP in both states Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, triggering hopes amongst investors on bold reforms and economic development. Positive cues from global markets also lifted investor sentiment.
In late trade, Nifty erased some gains as it failed to hold 10,400-level on profit booking.
Overseas, European stocks gained and Asian stocks were mostly higher after a positive lead from Wall Street.
The NSE Nifty opened lower at 10,263.10 and moved in a range of 10,443.55 and 10,074.80, before ending at 10,388.75 up 55.50 points, or 0.54 per cent from its last close.

It saw an intra-day movement of about 368.75 points.

On the sectoral front, PSU bank rose by 2.35 per cent, followed by metal 1.66 per cent, pharma 1.43 per cent, auto 1.23 per cent, infra 0.79 per cent, bank 0.61 per cent, Fin service 0.57 per cent, media 0.56 per cent and private bank 0.34 per cent.
Major index gainers were Vedanta, Hindalco, Mahindra and Mahindra, Cipla, Sun Pharma, SBIN, GAIL, ICICI Bank and Bharti Airtel.
Losers included Yes Bank, Hindustan Petroleum, Tech Mahindra, Coal India, UPL, Infosys, Indiabulls Housing Finance and ITC.
The market breadth, indicating its overall health, was in favour of gainers. On the NSE, 924 stocks advanced, 827 declined and 66 remained unchanged.

Total securities that hit their price bands were 199.
Turnover in the cash segment rose to Rs 32,615.68 crore from Rs 32,230.08 crore as on last Friday.
A total of 14,863.94 lakh shares changed hands in 11,376,797 trades. The market capitalisation of listed firms on the NSE stood at Rs 1,45,46,571.15 crore.