Markets maintain gains, Sensex up 56 points

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) on Thursday opened on a higher note during the morning session of the trade.

Similarly, the wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also ended flat.

In a volatile trade, the S&P BSE benchmark sensex advanced further by 45 points to close at 26,079.48 and Nifty also inched up further by 3.80 points to finish at 7,928.95 on short-covering ahead of the expiry of futures and options December contract on coming Thursday. The Sensex rose 157.51 points or 0.61% to settle at 26,117.54, its highest closing level since 2 December 2015. The Nifty 50 Index slid 0.2 percent to 7,927.45, with volume 59 percent less than the 30-day average at this time of the day. "Market has ended the year with a negative full-year return of 5%, but expectation is bright on the new year", said Vinod Nair, Head-Fundamental Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Ltd.

Shrugging-off weak trend in stocks, the total market valuation of firms listed on the rose by Rs 2 lakh crore in 2015, mainly helped by a host of new listings at the bourses this year.

Unwinding of long positions ahead of the derivatives expiry, coupled with profit bookings, subdued Indian equity markets during the late-afternoon session on Wednesday.

The broader markets underperformed the benchmark indices.

Markets will be keenly watching the fiscal third-quarter earnings after a fairly disappointing second quarter corporate showing, which led to a downgrade in earnings estimates for the current fiscal year that ends March 31.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,123.41 crore yesterday.

Rising for the eighth straight session, the rupee today gained two paise to close at 66.19 on sustained selling of the dollar by banks and exporters amid robust foreign capital inflows.

In contrast, Tata Motors, L&T, SBI, Mahindra & Mahindra, Adani Ports and Cipla poked into the positive zone.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended down 119 points at 25,960 and the Nifty50 ended down 33 points at 7,896.

Sectorally, the BSE realty sector index gained the most by surging 1.99 per cent, followed by capital goods (1.01 per cent), auto (0.93 per cent), power (0.89 per cent), PSU (0.83 per cent), metal (0.65 per cent) and banking (0.62 per cent), among others.

Major gainers in the 30-share index were Housing Development Finance Corporation (1.20%), Bharti Airtel (0.84%), HDFC Bank (0.8%), GAIL (0.78%), Infosys (0.63%), and Coal India (0.53%). Some of their best-performing stocks such as BPCL rose 38 percent, HDFC Bank jumped 14 percent, Maruti Suzuki vaulted 38 percent and Reliance Industries rose 13 percent.