The Indian equity benchmarks snapped their two-day losing streak on Monday led by gains in information technology shares like Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies, Infosys and Reliance Industries.
The Sensex rose as much as 452 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 16,592.50.
However, the benchmarks came off intraday highs in noon deals as booked profit at higher levels as traders turned cautious because of the extremely bearish market breadth, analysts said.
The overall market breadth was extremely negative as 2,482 shares ended lower while 770 shares ended higher on the BSE.The Sensex advanced 226 points to close at 55,555 and Nifty 50 index rose 46 points to close at 16,496."If Nifty sustains above 16,500 in short term it can go up to 16,700 as the momentum indicators like relative strength index (RSI) and moving average convergence divergence (MACD) are positive," Ashis Biswas, head of technical research at CapitalVia Global Research said.Ten of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty Media index's 1.7 per cent decline.
Auto, Realty, PSU Bank, Metal and FMCG indexes also ended lower.On the other hand, Nifty IT index was top sectoral gainer, up nearly 2 per cent.Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed selling pressure as Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 0.9 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index declined nearly 2 per cent.Nuvoco Vistas Corporation made a weak debut on the bourses today i.e.
August 23.
The cement maker's shares opened at Rs 471, a discount of 17.37 per cent compared to the issue price of Rs 570, on the BSE.
On the NSE, the shares opened at a discount of 15 per cent at Rs 485.HCL Technologies was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 4 per cent to close at record high of Rs 1,165.
TCS, Nestle India, Bajaj Finserv, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finance and Divi's Labs also rose between 1-2 per cent.On the flipside, Grasim Industries, Adani Ports, Mahindra - Mahindra, Eicher Motors, Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors, UltraTech Cement, Shree Cements, Power Grid and Tata Consumer Products were among the losers.