Sensex gains 70 pts; Cipla tops buy list, ONGC tanks 2%

The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty stayed higher due to buying interest in banks, capital goods, FMCG, auto and power stocks. Reliance Industries too was quite supportive since early trade, rising 0.8%.

The BSE benchmark gained 70 points at 17,533 and the NSE benchmark rose 20.65 points to 5,323.20. The broader markets like BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up over 1%.

Drug maker Cipla topped the buying list, rising 2.8% whereas Dr Reddy's Labs declined 0.8%.

Cigarette major ITC, top commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors and country's largest private sector lender were up 1.6% each.

Engineering and construction major by sales Larsen & Toubro went up 0.86% and state-owned power equipment manufacturer BHEL gained 1%.

Top lender State Bank of India rose 0.5% while its rival HDFC Bank moved up 0.8%.

However, state-owned oil & gas producer ONGC tanked over 2%. Second largest two-wheeler major Bajaj Auto slipped 1.6%.

Software services exporter TCS and telecom operator Bharti Airtel were down 0.5% each.

About three shares advanced for every share declining on the National Stock Exchange.

In the second line shares, Shoppers Stop, Anant Raj Industries, Trent, Schneider Electric and Shree Renuka rallied 5.5-8.5% whereas J&K Bank, Bajaj Holdings, Sobha Developer, AIA Engineering and Godfrey Phillip lost 2-3%.

Among smallcap stocks, Gujarat Ambuja Exports, Ram Kaashyap, Nitin Fire Protection, UB Holdings and Dhanlaxmi Bank surged 11-16%. However, Vaarad Ventures, Jai Balaji, Numeric Power, Symphony and Inventure Growth fell 3.5-4.5%.