Markets End Higher, Banking And NBFC Stocks Lead rally

Benchmark indices surged in trade led by a solid rally in banking, housing finance and NBFC stocks. Global cues were subdued and Indian markets which had underperformed in the earlier part of the week, ended the day with good gains.

The Nifty closed the day higher by 128 points. Leading the gainers was Axis Bank, HDFC, Bajaj Finserv and ICICI Bank. Bulk of the Nifty gains came from the banking and finance stocks, which have the highest weight in the Nifty.

Stocks that lost ground from the Nifty were NTPC, Nestle, Larsen and Cipla. ONGC too dropped after its quarterly numbers disappointed the street.

Auto stocks began reacting to sales numbers, Mahindra and Mahindra fell, while HeroMoto Corp, ended the day flat despite numbers showing very good improvement in June.

Shares in Bharat Forge surged almost 6 per cent after a leading brokerage firm upgraded the stock to a buy. The stock ended the day almost per cent higher.

Meanwhile, the rupee ended the day marginally lower at 75.59 against the U.S. Dollar as compared to Tuesday's close of 75.51. Most of the European markets were trading with losses, led by the German DAX, while Dow Futures were pointing to lower openings for the US markets.