Sensex up 100pts, Nifty50 above 17,550; ITC gains 2%

Domestic markets erased early losses and edged higher in Thursday’s intra-day trade, supported by gains across index heavyweights like ITC, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, and HCL Technologies.

While the benchmark index Nifty50 gained over 20 points to trade above 17,750 levels, the S&P BSE Sensex surged over 200 points to hit day’s high of 59,960 levels.

Broader markets, meanwhile, were mixed in trade as Nifty SmallCap 100 index outperformed Nifty MidCap 100 index.

Sectorally, Nifty IT, and Nifty Metal indices were off to a decent start, whereas Nifty IT index was the worst hit as it declined over 1 per cent.

Among individual stocks, shares of Sonata Software jumped 4.5 per cent to a high of Rs 721 after the company’s North America arm inked an agreement to buy 100 per cent stake in Quant Systems Inc.