Closing Bell: Sensex Rises Over 222 Pts; Nifty Settles Near 9,000

NTPC was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying nearly 6 percent, followed by ICICI Bank, Titan, among others.

Image used for representational purposes. 

(Photo: Reuters)

Equity benchmark Sensex rose over 222 points on Thursday, 16 April, buoyed by gains in finance, energy and power stocks despite weak cues from global markets.

After swinging 784 points intra-day, the 30-share index settled 222.80 points or 0.73 percent higher at 30,602.61. Similarly, the NSE Nifty ended 67.50 points, or 0.76 percent, up at 8,992.80.

NTPC was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying nearly 6 percent, followed by ICICI Bank, Titan, L&T, SBI, Sun Pharma and Nestle India.

On the other hand, HCL Tech, Kotak Bank, Tech Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp and Infosys were among the laggards.

Domestic market opened on a softer note tracking mixed global cues as virus concerns continued to weigh on sentiment, said Narendra Solanki, Head- Equity Research (Fundamental), Anand Rathi.

During the afternoon session, market gained positive traction as traders and investors were seen accumulating some large cap stocks, he noted.

Sensex had fallen 326 points to 30,053, while Nifty had slipped 39 points to 8,885 in the morning, following weak cues from Wall Street and Asia Pacific markets.

Meanwhile, the rupee had slipped 34 paise to an all-time low of 76.78 against the US dollar in early trade on Thursday.

(With inputs from BloombergQuint and PTI.)