Nifty recovers 40 points, fails to hold 8,700-mark

The S&P CNX Nifty recovered by 40 points to end at 8,699 following fresh buying in PSU bank, realty, media, metal and bank counters amid positive Asian cues, even as a sell-off in pharma, IT and FMCG limited the gains.
In overseas markets, European and Asian shares were mixed. US stocks registered small gains yesterday, helped by better-than-expected earnings and rising oil prices.
The 50-share Nifty opened higher at 8,693.35 and moved in a range of 8,727.00 and 8,678.30 before ending at 8,699.40, showing a rise of 40.30 points or 0.47 per cent from its last close.
Nifty reclaimed the 8,700-mark intraday but failed to hold the level in late trade. It witnessed an intra-day movement of 48.70 points.

On sectoral front, PSU Bank rose by 2.12 per cent, followed by realty (1.64 per cent), media (1.55 per cent), metal (1.46 per cent), private bank (1.37 per cent), bank (1.27 per cent), financial service (1.14 per cent), infra (0.92 per cent) and energy (0.18 per cent).
Notable losers were pharma (0.39 per cent), IT (0.37 per cent), FMCG (0.12 per cent) and auto (0.04 per cent).

Index gainers were Adani Ports (5.03 per cent), ICICI Bank (4.73 per cent), Hindalco (2.81 per cent), Idea Cellular (2.62 per cent), Bharti Infratel (2.55 per cent), Zee (2.27 per cent) and SBI (1.84 per cent).

Index laggards included HCL Tech (1.81 per cent), Tata Motors Dvr (0.66 per cent), HUL (0.67 per cent), Sun Pharma (0.63 per cent) and Tata Motors (0.66 per cent).
A total of 961 scrips advanced, 682 declined while 75 remained unchanged. Total securities that hit their price bands were 94.
Turnover in cash segment fell to Rs 20,517.52 crore from Rs 23,090.80 crore yesterday.
A total of 11,624.65 lakh shares changed hands in 8,222,223 trades. The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 11,169,790.07 crore.