TCS, Wipro, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were among the leading gainers on the BSEThe domestic stock markets ended near the highs of the day, amid an unstable session of trading, due to purchasing momentum in the last hour of trading.
The BSE Sensex oscillated in a broad variety of more than 800 points prior to ending at 48,803.68, higher by 259.62 points or 0.53 per cent and the NSE Nifty swung more than 200 points prior to ending at 14,581.45, up 76.65 points or 0.53 percent.
The BSE Midcap index and BSE Smallcap indices, however, under-performed their largecap peers to end virtually unchanged.In economy-related developments, the wholesale cost index (WPI)-based inflation rate zoomed to an 8-year high of 7.39 per cent in March as fuel and power prices increased to 10.25 percent, made items rates reached 7.34 percent and food increased to 5.28 per cent.
The last time WPI-based inflation had touched this mark was in 2013.
In business news, the Walmart-owned e-commerce giant Flipkart revealed the acquisition of leading online travel business Cleartrip.
The homegrown e-commerce marketplace will obtain 100 per cent of Cleartrip's shareholding in order to strengthen its digital commerce offerings for customers.On the stock-specific front, TCS, Wipro, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were among the top gainers on the BSE, registering returns of 2-4 percent each.
Wipro is arranged to reveal its quarterly numbers later on in the day.On the other hand, Infosys dived by 2.5 per cent to Rs 1,361.90 on the BSE post its Q4 numbers; the IT major had reported a yearly boost of 17 per cent in net earnings at Rs 5,076 crore.
Grasim, Eicher Motors and Maruti Suzuki lost around 3 per cent each on the BSE.The BSE market breadth was weak.
Out of 3,057 stocks traded on the BSE, there were 1,251 advancing stocks as versus 1,646 declines.