Nifty holds on to 10,400-mark, up 15 points

Rising for the fifth straight session, NSE Nifty gained 14.90 points to close at 10,417.15 today, led by gains in metal, IT, auto, pharma and media counters amid mixed Asian cues.

Sustained buying by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) and a mixed trend at Asian bourses following overnight gains at the Wall Street helped key indices close in the positive zone. However, a steep rise in crude oil prices remained an overhang on investor sentiment.

Investors are now focusing on key macroeconomic data, including retail inflation and industrial production numbers due on Thursday and corporate results starting Friday, brokers said.

Overseas, European equities were trading lower, tracking mixed cues from Asian market, with traders failing to take any significant succour from new signs that trade tension between the US and China was easing.

Back home, the NSE 50-share index, after moving between 10,428.15 and 10,355.60 on alternate bouts of selling and buying, finally closed at 10,417.15, up 14.90 points, or 0.14 percent. The Nifty witnessed an intra-day movement of about 72.55 points.

Sector-wise, Metal rose by 1.59 per cent, followed by IT 1.45 per cent, Auto 0.59 per cent, Pharma 0.48 percent, Media 0.29 per cent and FMCG 0.21 per cent.

On the other hand, PSU Bank fell by 2.33 per cent, Bank 0.51 per cent, Energy 0.40 per cent, Realty 0.39 per cent, Finance Service 0.36 per cent and Private Bank 0.33 per cent.

Major index gainers were Vedanta, TCS, Sun Pharma, HCL Tech, Eicher Motors, Titan, Hindalco, Reliance and Tech Mahindra.

The losers were BPCL, HPCL, IOC, Adani Ports, SBI, Yes Bank, GAIL, Grasim, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank.

The market breadth, indicating its overall health, was in favour of losers. On the NSE, 728 stocks advanced, 1,055 declined and 86 remained unchanged.

Turnover in the cash segment rose to Rs 29,878.82 crore from Rs 27,871.31 crore as on Tuesday.

A total of 14,414.47 lakh shares changed hands in 96,00,122 trades.