The Indian stock market ended on a positive note in a highly volatile session on Thursday, with Nifty closing above 22,700. The market was supported by IT stocks after the Indian rupee posted its biggest gain in over a decade.
At close, the Sensex was up 185.23 points or 0.25 per cent at 73,319.55, and the Nifty was up 33.70 points or 0.15 per cent at 22,713.10. The Nifty Midcap index fell 0.3 per cent, while the Smallcap index declined 0.4 per cent.
Among the sectors, the IT index rose 2.6% while realty up 1%. It was followed by auto, PSU Bank, oil & gas, pharma, and consumer durables, which shed 1% each. Nifty Bank gained 0.19%, while the Financial Services index rose by 0.25%.
On Nifty, the top gainers were HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Tata Consumer, and Wipro. On the losing end were Eternal, Asian Paints, Eicher Motors, Bajaj Auto and Sun Pharma.
Over 140 stocks touched their 52-week lows on the BSE. These included Sapphire Foods, Blue Star, Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company, Devyani International, PG Electroplast, Godrej Properties, Lodha Developers, Tata Communications, KEC International, DLF, Havells India, Indian Hotels, ICICI Prudential, Bajaj Holdings, LIC India, Max Healthcare, JSW Infra, Kotak Mahindra Bank, SBI Card, Bajaj Finserv, among others.
Indian rupee posted its biggest gain in more than 12 years, rising 2%, to 92.8350 per US dollar.
Among the real estate stocks, DLF, Brigade Enterprises, and Oberoi Realty all closed with gains of over 2%.
In terms of the large companies, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Wipro, and TCS all closed with gains of 2% to 3.5%.
IT stocks registered healthy gains, led by HCL Technologies, which surged 3%, followed by Tech Mahindra, up 2.5%.
The market will remain shut on Friday (April 3) on account of Good Friday.