Sensex Closes 646 Points Higher, Reliance Surges 7%

Benchmark indices ended the day sharply higher, led by a solid surge of 7 per cent in the stock of Reliance Industries. Reports in the Bloombergquint that Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd. is offering to sell a roughly $20 billion stake in its retail business to Amazon.com Inc., pushed the stock higher and the indices as well.

The Nifty ended the day higher by a whopping 171 points, thanks to a solid contribution from Reliance Industries. Banking stocks which were up sharply in morning trade managed to end the day mixed. State Bank of India saw its shares rally, while HFDC Bank fell and ICICI Bank ended the day little changed.

Shares of State Bank of India (SBI), which jumped over 3 percent in intraday trade on BSE ended the day with gains of near 2 per cent. In a regulatory filing on September 10, the public sector lender said it had sold Rs 4,000 crore of the Basel compliant Additional Tier 1 (AT1) bonds at a coupon of 7.74 percent.

Among the top Nifty losers in trade were Bharti Infratel, Hindalco, Tata Steel and Bharti Airtel. Oil marketing companies had a good day in trade with IOC and BPCL among the gainers on a drop in oil prices.