Tracking gains in major Asian peers, domestic equity benchmarks remained in the positive territory for the second consecutive session on October 14.
Gains in shares of select heavyweights, such as Tata Consultancy Services, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank, kept the market in the green even as losses in shares of Infosys, Bajaj Finance and Larsen & Toubro, weighed on key indices.
The session saw some volatility even though the market remained in the green for the most part of the day as investors restricted their bets ahead of key inflation numbers.
Rupee's weakness also weighed on sentiment. The Indian currency fell 18 paise intraday against the dollar.
"The signs of easing trade tensions between US-China provided some respite to the investors globally. On the domestic front, the earnings season is likely to dictate trend for the Indian market as some of the front liners would be declaring their results this week. We expect that more than the earnings announcement, investors and traders would focus on the outlook provided by the management especially for consumption-driven companies," said Ajit Mishra, Vice President - Research at Religare Broking.
Sensex closed the day with a gain of 87 points, or 0.23 percent, at 38,214.47, with 25 stocks in the green and only five in the red.
Tata Motors, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, IndusInd Bank and Sun Pharma emerged as the top gainers in the Sensex index, while Infosys, Bajaj Finance, Power Grid, Larsen & Toubro and Kotak Mahindra Bank settled as the losers.
The Nifty index closed 36 points, or 0.32 percent, up at 11,341.15, with 36 stocks up and 14 down.
Among the secondary indices, BSE Midcap outperformed Sensex, rising 0.44 percent while Smallcap index underperformed, ending with a mild gain of 0.12 percent.
On the sectoral front, BSE Telecom (up 2.24 percent), Realty (up 1.99 percent), Oil & Gas (up 1.07 percent) and Metal (up 1.04 percent) logged healthy gains.
However, BSE IT (down 0.90 percent), Teck (down 0.50 percent), Power (down 0.20 percent) and Capital Goods (down 0.15 percent) settled in the red.
Top news of the day:
Banks have disbursed loans worth nearly Rs 81,781 crore via the recently introduced 'loan melas' between October 1 and October 9, a senior Finance Ministry official said.
Wholesale prices based inflation eased to 0.33 percent in September, as against 1.08 percent in August due to a fall in prices of non-food articles, government data showed.
The 2019 Nobel Prize for Economics was on October 14 awarded to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer.
Stocks in news:
Shares of Hindustan Unilever (HUL) logged a mild gain of 0.50 percent to end at Rs 2,014.70 on BSE on October 14 ahead of the company's September quarter numbers.
Shares of IT major Infosys fell 3.68 percent to Rs 785.65 on the company's softer July-September quarter numbers.
Shares of DLF climbed 6.36 percent to Rs 154.80 after the company sold flats worth Rs 700 crore in its new housing project in Gurugram.
Shares of Indiabulls Housing Finance shed 5.74 percent to end at Rs 197.90 after Moody's had downgraded the company's rating to B2 from Ba2 with a negative outlook.
Shares of IRCTC closed the day with a stellar gain of 127.69 percent at Rs 728.60 against the issue price of Rs 320 per share.
Global update:
A three-day rally in European shares halted on Monday as investors assessed the scale of progress from Friday’s US-China trade talks and worried that a Brexit withdrawal agreement was still some way off after signs of a major breakthrough, Reuters reported.
However, most Asian peers ended with gains. China's Shanghai Composite Index settled 1.15 percent higher, while Korea's Kospi closed 1.11 percent up.
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