SENSEX, NIFTY50 gain for second straight session led by Reliance Industries, SBI

The Indian equity benchmarks rose for a second straight session on Thursday, August 6, as investor sentiment remained positive on easing geopolitical tensions in West Asia after Iran and Oman reached an understanding over a shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz.

The SENSEX ended at the day's highest level, rising 374 points to close at 78,955 and NIFTY50 index advanced 11 points to close at 24,636 led by gains in index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Eternal, Bharat Electronics, Titan and Bharti Airtel.

Most of the Asian markets ended lower dragged down by selling pressure in AI related shares such as SK Hynix, Samsung, Kioxia and Tokyo Electron.

Japan's Nikkei dropped 0.9%, South Korea's KOSPI index declined 4.58%%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 1.5% while China's Shanghai Composite index rose 0.6%.

Eight of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) ended lower led by the NIFTY Realty index's 1.3% fall. NIFTY Auto, IT, Metal, Media and Private Bank indices also fell between 0.2% and 1.3%.

On the other hand, defence, PSU banking, consumer durables, banking and oil & gas shares witnessed buying interest.

Broader markets ended mixed as NIFTY Midcap 100 index fell 0.44% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.5%.

Among the individual shares, Neuland Laboratories surged as much as 11.18% to hit a record high of ₹22,188 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) after it reported strong June quarter earnings.

Neuland Laboratories on Wednesday said that its net profit in April-June period jumped over 10-fold or 962% to ₹148 crore from ₹14 crore in the same period last year.

Its revenue from operations more than doubled to ₹642 crore compared with ₹293 crore a year earlier.

Neuland Laboratories reported strong operational performance as its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) jumped 540% to ₹224 crore from ₹35 crore.

Navin Fluorine advanced as much as 12% to hit an intraday high of ₹8,521 after its sales rose 11% quarter-on-quarter to ₹1,945 crore and operating EBITDA advanced 11% to ₹257 crore.

Trading volume jumped by 13.9 times to 21.86 lakh shares compared with an average volume of 1.57 lakh shares.

Reliance Industries was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock rose 3.5% to close at ₹1,325.

State Bank of India advanced 2.84% to close at ₹1,085 a day ahead of its earnings announcement.

Bharat Electronics, Eternal, Titan, Shriram Finance, Cipla, Nestle India, Apollo Hospitals, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank and Jio Financial Services also rose between 0.44% and 2.4%.

On the flip side, Power Grid, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, IndiGo, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra were top losers in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was neutral as 1,668 shares ended higher while 1,672 closed lower on the NSE.