Nifty up 88 points; metal,financial stocks gain

Benchmark Nifty rose 88 points today in a steady session of trade led by metal and financial stocks amid easing geopolitical tensions in the Korean peninsula.

Most Asian markets gained following US President Donald Trump's measured response to North Korea's latest missile launch.

The missile launch jolted the US stock markets yesterday but major indices pulled back from early losses and mostly finished higher as the weakening dollar gave technology and industrial companies a boost.

On the sectoral front, the Nifty Metal, Energy, Realty and Financial Services indices led the upmove, advancing 2.65 per cent, 1.92 per cent, 1.69 per cent and 0.95 per cent respectively.

IT was the lone loser, shedding 0.12 per cent.

The 50-share Nifty surpassed the key 9,900-mark during the day, but gave in to selling pressure as it settled at 9,884.40, up 88.35 points, or 0.90 per cent.

It saw an intra-day movement of about 58.65 points.

Major index gainers were IOC, Hindalco, Bosch, BPCL and Vedanta.

Index losers included Tech Mahindra, M&M, Cipla, Bank of Baroda and HCL Tech.

Market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was tilted towards the gainers. A total of 1,261 scrips advanced, 399 declined, while 73 remained unchanged.

As many as 125 securities hit their price bands.

Turnover in the cash segment eased to Rs 23,269.35 crore from Rs 23,705.16 crore yesterday.

A total of 12,327.89 lakh shares changed hands in 8,296,602 trades. The market capitalisation of listed firms on the NSE stood at Rs 1,29,95,575 crore.