Sensex rises 150 points, Nifty hits 18,300; Asian Paints, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma top gainers

Sensex rose over 150 points in afternoon trade today, rising for the third consecutive session, tracking gains in heavyweights such as Asian Paints, Sun Pharma and Bharti Airtel.

Sensex was trading 150 points higher at 61,500 and Nifty advanced 31 points to 18,300.

Asian Paints was the top  Sensex gainer, rallying around 6 per cent, followed by ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, Nestle India, Dr Reddy's and TCS.

The rise in Asian Paints shares came after the market leader in the decorative paints segment raised prices by 7-10 per cent, effective from November 12.

Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv and IndusInd Bank were among the top Sensex losers, falling up to 5.40% in afternoon session. Of the 30 Sensex shares, 17 were trading higher.

In the previous session, Sensex ended 383.21 points higher at 61,350 and Nifty surged 143 points to 18,268.40.

BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices rose 101 points and 186 points, respectively. On the sectoral front, pharma, IT and consumer durables stocks  led the gains today.

BSE healthcare index rose 321 points to 25,521. BSE IT and consumer durables indices were trading 274 points and 163 points higher, respectively.

Banking and metal stocks capped the gains with their BSE indices falling 192 and 144 points, respectively,

The market breadth was positive with 1,992 shares trading higher against 1,145 stocks in the red. 140 shares were unchanged.

Market cap of BSE-listed firms rose to Rs 266.37 lakh crore. On Tuesday, the market cap stood at Rs 265.36 lakh crore.

In early trade, Sensex advanced over 100 points tracking gains in index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and Asian Paints. Sensex was trading 106.71 points higher at 61,456.97 and Nifty advanced 26.70 points to 18,295.10.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 2,368 crore on October 26, and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,385 crore, as per provisional data available on NSE.