Sensex ends 86 pts up; oil & gas, auto, metal, banks lead

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The benchmark Nifty closed the first day of April series on a positive note led by buying in oil & gas, auto, banking & financial, cement, metal and select pharma companies' shares.

Dipan Mehta, Member of BSE & NSE said this April series would be certainly big series. "The market is trading at the upper end at previous highs and there is always a strong likelihood that pervious high maybe breached and you could cross 5,300, maybe even 18,000 on the Sensex."

The index tried to move towards the 5300 during the day, even touched an intraday high of 5293.75 but could not pass that psychological mark due to profit booking at higher levels.

Capital goods, realty select telecom and technology stocks witnessed selling pressure, which capped the gains as well as aided to volatility throughout the session.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 17,644.76, up 85.91 points or 0.49% and the Nifty rose 21.60 points or 0.41% to settle at 5282. The Nifty April future ended at 10 points premium, as per provisional data.

ONGC was the leading share today, gained 2.2% followed by Reliance Industries, which rose 0.82%. In the oil & gas space, BPCL went up 1% while Cairn India fell 1.3%.

Banking & financial companies' shares were quite supportive today; HDFC, HDFC Bank, SBI and ICICI Bank were up 1-1.5%. Axis Bank was the second top gainer on the Nifty, rose 3.33%,

Auto space also led support to the benchmark indices; Tata Motors was the top gainer with 3.4% jump. Marut Suzuki and M&M moved up 2% each while Hero Honda slipped 0.64%.