Sensex gains 145 pts, Nifty fails to hold 8700; ICICI Bank up 5%

Equity benchmarks recouped previous day's losses on Thursday with the Nifty reclaiming 8700 level intraday but failed to hold the same level in late trade. Banking & financials, infra and oil & gas stocks aided the momentum but the sell-off in Infosys, Tata Motors, HDFC Bank and ITC limited upside. Positive Asian cues also lifted the market sentiment.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 145.47 points at 28129.84, and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 40.30 points at 8699.40 after hitting an intraday high of 8727. The market breadth continued to be positive as about 1589 shares advanced against 1231 declining shares on the BSE.

Global factors such as the possibility of December Federal Reserve hike could cause volatility in the market, Mihir Vora of Max Life Insurance says. However, he does not see any local negative triggers.

Vora expects a 10-15 percent compounded growth from the market over the next two years.

At the time of writing this article, European stocks were mixed as investors remained cautious ahead of European Central Bank policy meeting later today and quarterly earnings. Asia ended higher with the Japan's Nikkei rising 1.4 percent and the Mexican peso strengthened against the dollar following the conclusion of the final US Presidential debate.

ICICI Bank and Adani Ports were top gainers on the Sensex, rising 5 percent each followed by HDFC, SBI and ONGC with 1-2 percent upside. Infosys, Tata Motors, HDFC Bank, Lupin, ITC, HUL and Sun Pharma were down 0.2-0.7 percent.

Larsen & Toubro rose 1.23 percent after signing contract with Maharashtra government for Nagpur smart city project. The infrastructure giant said the scope of work included laying 1,200 km of optic fiber network.

Ashok Leyland was up 1.7 percent on bagging order worth USD 170 million (Rs 1,140 crore) from Tanzania for vehicles, gensets, spares & equipment for ambulances.

Yes Bank shares gained 1.3 percent as quarterly earnings beat analysts’ expectations with profit and net interest income rising over 30 percent YoY on strong loan growth despite higher provisions.

Recently listed RBL Bank climbed nearly 5 percent after profit in Q2 jumped 34.4 percent and net interest income shot up 59.4 percent with improvement in asset quality. LIC Housing Finance lost over a percent despite better-than-expected growth of more than 20 percent in profit and net interest income.

Business services provider Quess Corp surged 6 percent after profit in Q2 jumped 66.3 percent YoY. The company also signed agreement to acquire 49 percent stake in Terrier Security Services, 64 percent in Comtel Solutions Pte and 45 percent in Simpliance Technologies.

LML was locked at 10 percent upper circuit as the company will start trial operations on limited basis from October 24. The trial operations may be of its light cargo 3-wheeler vehicle.