Sensex rises over 120 points on fag-end buying; Nifty closes above 17,750

In spite of a bearish trend in global equity markets, the equity benchmark Sensex closed higher by 123 points on Wednesday, rising for the third consecutive session. This gain was supported by substantial fag-end buying in banking and financial stocks.

Furthermore, traders claimed that bears' covering of short positions contributed to the late stock recovery and helped erase losses.

They added, however, that a weak rupee against major rivals overseas impacted market sentiment and limited gains.

The 30-share BSE Sensex ended the session at 60,348.09, up 123.63 points, or 0.21%, from the previous close. The index fluctuated between a high of 60,402.85 and a low of 59,844.82 throughout the session.

To finish at 17,754.40, the broader NSE Nifty gained 42.95 points, or 0.24%.

With a gain of 4.75%, IndusInd Bank led the Sensex chart, followed by M&M, L&T, NTPC, ITC, Ultra Cement, Tata Steel, Maruti, and SBI.

Bajaj Finance, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, and Sun Pharma, on the other hand, suffered losses of up to 2.30 percent.

The BSE midcap index went up 0.61% and the smallcap index went up 0.28% in the overall market.

Due to Holi, the stock market was closed on Tuesday.

While Tokyo settled in the green, markets in Shanghai, Seoul, and Hong Kong all ended with losses.

In the afternoon, European equity exchanges were trading with losses. In the overnight session, the US markets had ended significantly lower.

On Wednesday, the rupee lost 13 paise against the US dollar to end at 82.05 (provisional).

Brent crude, the international standard for oil, was trading at USD 83.16 per barrel, down 0.16%.

According to exchange data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the capital markets on Monday, purchasing shares worth Rs 721.37 crore.