Sensex ends firm at 14,355.75

Mumbai, Jul 31: The Sensex ended firm on the Bombay Stock Exchange, closing higher for the second consecutive day on Thursday, July 31 at 14,355.75 with a modest gain of 68.54 points in restricted trading on renewed bull support by local operators.

It was a lacklustre day for markets as Sensex was rangebound at around 14,200 to 14,300 and Nifty hovered around the 4,300 level. The Nifty July futures series expired. Stocks specific activity was seen in select large and midcap stocks. Buying was seen in metals and oil &gas sectors and selling in pharma, technology, banking and telecom stocks. Sensex and Nifty indices have shot up by 564.21 points and 143.10 points respectively in the last two days. The Sensex of BSE closed at 14,355.75, up 68.54 points or 0.48 pc, after hitting an intraday high of 14,369.59 and low of 14,161.76.

The Nifty index of National Stock Exchange (NSE) ended with a gain of 19.4 points or 0.45 pc at 4332.95. It touched a high and low of 4342 and 4285.55 respectively during the session.

Total turnover traded by markets stood at Rs 85024.28 crore. This includes Rs 64,640.25 crore from NSE F&O segment, Rs 15,330.32 crore from NSE Cash and the balance 5,053.71 crore from BSE cash segment.

The market breadth turned negative from the earlier strong trend with 1,278 shares advancing as compared to 1,343 that declined on BSE. 76 remained unchanged. Among the 30-member Sensex pack, 16 gained while the rest declined.

UNI