Markets staged a smart comeback today, halting a two-day slide on value buying amid expiry of November F&O series, with the NSE-benchmark Nifty rising over 52 points.
Market sentiment improved on hopes of a breakthrough in GST bill deadlock in Parliament, along with other key reform measures.
Additionally, hectic short-covering by participants as well as good uptick in rollover of futures and options (F&O) contracts to December series amid firm European cues supported trading mood.
After a firm start, bourses maintained their upward momentum throughout the day on investors' optimism with firm buying in frontline blue-chips.
The 50-share Nifty resumed higher at 7,837.15 and moved between a high of 7,897.10 and a low of 7,832, before concluding at 7,883.80, revealing a healthy gain of 52.20 points, or 0.67 per cent.
Biggest sectoral movers were realty (2.10 per cent), auto (1.34 per cent), energy 1.44 (per cent), media (1.36 per cent), metals (1.05 per cent), FMCG (0.97 per cent), infra (0.70 per cent), PSU banks (0.55 per cent) and Bank Nifty (0.28 per cent), along with mid-cap and small-cap indices.
However, healthcare fell by 0.73 per cent and tech slipped 0.13 per cent despite weak rupee.
Stock specific gainers included Tata Motors, ITC, Reliance, Sun Pharma, Idea, Infosys, M&M, Zee, Kotak Bank, Gail, HDFC, Hero MotoCorp, Power Grid, ONGC, Wipro and SBI.
Among the major losers was Dr Reddy's Laboratories, which plunged 8.47 per cent on reports that US FDA might withhold approval of the company's fresh drugs and stop imports after it found violations at three of its plants.
Other laggards were TCS, L&T, Lupin, Tech-M, Adani Port, Maruti, Bajaj Auto, IndusInd, HCL-Tech, Cipla and HDFC Bank.
Turnover in cash segment jumped to Rs 23,314.73 crore against Rs 15,851.82 crore on Tuesday. A total of 12,390.70 lakh shares changed hands in 81,95,543 trades.
The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 96,34,716 crore.
