Like yesterday, Indian stock markets also opened with gains due to improvement in global markets due to easing of tensions in the Middle East. After opening the session today 400 points higher and above 74,000, Sensex touched an intraday high of 74,059 and low of 73,688 and ended the day up just 90 points. The index did not fall below its previous close even once during the day. However, the initial rally did not last as Reliance Industries closed 1.36 per cent lower in today's limited session and the market fell due to profit-booking in the last hour.
At the end of the day, Sensex closed at 73,738, up 90 points or 0.12 percent. Similarly, Nifty also increased by 32 points or 0.14 percent and closed at 22,368. Bharti Airtel recorded the biggest gain among the Sensex stocks. Apart from this, ITC, Infosys, SBI, Maruti, HCL Tech, Nestle India, NTPC, HUL and Tata Motors also closed with gains of 1 to 3.4 percent. On the other hand, Sun Pharma, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, M&M, L&T, JSW Steel and Bajaj Finance were the top losers.
In the broader market, the BSE mid-cap index closed 0.52 per cent higher, while the small-cap index rose 1 per cent. In intra-day trading, the index touched its record high of 46,821 hit on February 7. Among sectoral indices, Nifty Realty Index recorded a rise of 2.6 per cent. MFCG index closed 0.76 percent higher. At the same time, a decline of 0.96 percent was recorded in Nifty Pharma Index.