Telecom giant Bharti Airtel's purchase of smaller rival Telenor helped local stocks bypass weak overseas cues on Thursday. New Delhi-based Bharti led the Nifty to a fresh 5-month high as the index clocked its sixth session of gains.

Bharti surged 4.7 per cent to 377.85 rupees, its highest level since August 2015. Bharti's purchase of Telenor will fetch an additional 43 MHz of crucial 4G spectrum which is critical in its fight to take on the new entrant Reliance JiO, owned by India's most profitable private company, Reliance Industries.

Over the past 7 months Reliance JiO has unleashed a price war in the booming telecom market as it tries to attract high paying customers from rivals such as Bharti, Idea Cellular and Vodafone Plc. Several brokerages have informed investors that JiO's competitive pricing may dent the customer base of rivals and force them to offer services at lower price points. As a consequence, Reliance Industries, which fully owns Reliance JiO, had surged more than 10 per cent on Wednesday.

Meawhile, here are the major events of the trading day:

* The Nifty added 33 points to quote at 8,960 points on the NSE. The index is up for the sixth day in a row and trades near its highest level since September 9.

* Idea Cellular, which is merging with larger rival Vodafone, was the top gainer, up 6.4 per cent. Bharti, TCS, HDFC Bank and HCL Tech gained 1.1-6.1 and were among 22 shares advancing on the Nifty.

* Power Grid, NTPC, Axis Bank, Grasim and ICICI Bank fell 1.1-1.4 per cent and were among 29 shares to lose ground on the Nifty.

* Telecom stocks dominated traders and investors' buy lists Bharti Airtel was the top traded stock with Rs 766 crore worth of shares changing hands on the NSE alone. Reliance Industries slipped a bit after Wednesday's sharp rally. Idea Cellular, HDFC Bank and TCS were traded heavily as well.

* Suzlon, Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel were also on the list of most actively traded stocks tracked by volume.

* The Sensex gained 100 points to quote at 28,964 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Bharti Airtel was the top gainer while Reliance Industries shed the most on the Sensex. ICICI Bank was the top traded counter on the Sensex.

* The broader markets inched up in trade as well with the Nifty 100, 200 and 500 indices adding 0.4 per cent each.

* Gains on the sectoral indices were on the higher side with the Nifty IT index posting the highest gain of 1.5 per cent. All four banking benchmarks edged higher.

* The bulls controlled sentiment on Dalal Street with 915 shares rising compared to 651 that fell.