Markets End Higher; Banking Stocks Lead

Business

oi-Sunil

By Sunil Fernandes

Updated: Friday, March 4, 2016, 15:52 [IST]

Benchmark indices ended the day higher for the 4th straight day, capping a superb set of gains for the Sensex and the Nifty during the week.

The Sensex ended the day with gains of 39 points, while the Nifty rallied 9 points in trade. Leading the set of gainers from the Nifty and the Sensex were banking stocks, led by PSU banking stocks, which rallied on hopes that the Gyan Sangam would come out concrete results for the banking sector.

Almost all of the banking stocks rallied including heavyweights ICICI Bank and State Bank of India. Other notable winners in trade were Oriental Bank of Commerce, which rallied 6 per cent, Punjab National Bank, which gained 5 per cent and Syndicate Bank, which jumped 7 per cent in trade. Almost all of the PSU banking shares saw gains between 3-8 per cent.

Federal Bank saw huge buying support after reports that the bank had inked a deal with Hyundai for retail financing. Bhel was trading higher after reports that it had commissioned a 700 MW super critical thermal unit in Karnataka.

Sun Pharma, Maruti and Bharti Airtel were the big losers from the Nifty space. Software stocks were weak in trade on gains made in the rupee over the last few trading sessions. Both Infosys and TCS lost ground in trade.

Meanwhile, markets across Europe were trading with marginal losses, while most of Asia ended the day with gains.

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