Sensex jumps nearly 790 points on buying in telecom, banking shares

Stock markets rose for the second consecutive day on Thursday with the benchmark Sensex jumping by nearly 790 points in a volatile session, driven by value buying in telecom, pharma and private banking shares.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 789.74 points, or 1.06 per cent, to close at 75,398.72. The index opened higher but slipped into negative territory in late morning deals. However, value buying in telecom and banking shares helped the barometer pare losses and later jump more than 1,000 points to a high of 75,681.88.

Extending gains to the second day, the 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 277 points, or 1.18 per cent, to finish at 23,689.60.

Among Sensex firms, Bharti Airtel emerged as the biggest gainer, rallying over 5 per cent after the telecom carrier's annual revenue crossed the Rs 2 lakh crore mark for the first time.

Eternal rose by 3.32 per cent while HDFC Bank advanced 2.67 per cent, emerging as the major contributor to the Sensex gains. Adani Ports, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Bajaj Finance, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Titan, Trent, UltraTech Cement, ITC and State Bank of India were among the other gainers.

On the other hand, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, Hindustan Unilever, Axis Bank and Maruti Suzuki India ended lower.

In Asian markets, Shanghai's SSE Composite index and Japan's Nikkei 225 benchmark ended lower, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng settled flat. However, South Korea's Kospi closed higher.