Nifty holds above 10,800-level, up 9.65 pts

The NSE Nifty rose by 9.65 points to close at 10,817.70 led by mild gains in IT and pharma sectors.

The market today opened on a positive note but soon choppiness prevailed and the key index swung between gains and losses in initial deals.

Intense volatility was witnessed on domestic bourses amid weak trend in Asian markets and concerns over widening trade deficit which intensified rupee volatility.

India's trade deficit widened to four-month high of USD 14.62 billion in May as imports surged nearly 15 per cent, the government data showed today. Trade deficit widened to USD 14.62 billion in May this year from USD 13.84 billion in the corresponding month a year ago.

Overseas, European shares fell in early trade amid renewed concerns over US-China trade war. Most Asian stocks closed lower. The Bank of Japan (BOJ) held to its easing policy today, which was widely expected.

Back home, the Nifty 50 index rose 9.65 points or 0.09 per cent to end at 10,817.70. The Nifty had hit a high of 10,834.00 and a low of 10,755.40 during the day.

It saw an intra-day movement of about 78.60 points.

On the sectoral front, pharma and IT climbed by 2.24 and 2.14 per cent, respectively. However, PSU banks fell by 2.18 per cent followed by realty 1.27 per cent, metal 1.53 per cent, infra 0.95 per cent, auto 0.62 per cent, banks 0.55 per cent, FMCG 0.38 per cent, private banks 0.39 per cent, energy 0.27 per cent, financial services 0.31 per cent and media 0.31 per cent.

Major index gainers were Cipla, Infosys, Dr Reddy, TCS, Sun Pharma, UPL, Bajaj Finance, Tech Mahindra and HCL Tech.

Losers included, Hindalco, IOC, Ultra Cement Co, Yes Bank, SBIN, Coal India, ONGC, Mahindra & Mahindra, Vedl and NTPC.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market turned negative, a total of 682 scrips advanced and 1,099 declined while 90 remained unchanged. Total securities that have hit their price band were 185.

Turnover in the cash segment rose to Rs 37,545.88 crore from Rs 26,350.92 crore as on Thursday.

A total of 14,463.60 lakh shares changed hands in 1,24,95,453 trades. The market capitalisation of listed firms on the NSE stood at Rs 1,47,16,449.46 crore.