Sensex closes 86 points higher in choppy trade; Nifty soars past 18,300 mark

Mumbai [India], January 17 (ANI): The Indian equities markets key indices witnessed choppy session on Monday as gains made due to buying support in the stocks like Maruti Suzuki, Tata Steel and TCS were offset by heavy selling in HCL Technologies and major private sector banks.
The benchmark Sensex closed 86 points higher while Nifty 50 soared past 18,300 points mark.
The 30 stock S&P BSE Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange closed at 61,308.91 points, which is 85.88 points or 0.14 per cent higher from its previous session's close at 61,223.03 points.
Earlier the Sensex opened marginally down at 61,219.64 points and fell to a low of 61,107.60 points and high of 61,385.48 points in the intra-day.
The broader Nifty 50 of the National Stock Exchange closed at 18,308.10 points, which is 0.29 per cent or 52.35 points higher from its previous session's close at 18,255.75 points.
The Nifty also opened in the negative at 18,235.65 points and touched a low of 18,228.75 points and high of 18,321.55 points in the intra-day.
There was strong buying support in auto, metal and IT stocks. Maruti Suzuki surged 2.08 per cent to Rs 8250. Mahindra & Mahindra soared 2.19 per cent to Rs 900.25. Tata Steel jumped 1.35 per cent to Rs 1229.70.
UltraTech Cement jumped 2.78 per cent to Rs 7867.90. Other major Sensex gainers include TCS 1.26 per cent higher at Rs 4019.10; L&T 1.20 per cent higher at Rs 2069.35; State Bank of India 1.14 per cent higher at Rs 514.05 and Bharti Airtel 1.09 per cent higher at Rs 728.55.
Reversing the last week's plunge, Wipro closed 1 per cent higher at Rs 646.20.
HCL Technologies slumped 5.89 per cent to Rs 1258.80 due to disappointing Q3 results. The company's net profit declined 13.6 per cent to Rs 3,442 crore for the third quarter of 2021-22. The scrip plunged to a low of Rs 1244 in the intra-day, which is 6.99 per cent lower from its previous close of Rs 1337.55 recorded on Friday. The company announced its Q3 results on Friday after the closing of market trading.
Other major Sensex losers were HDFC Bank 1.53 per cent down at Rs 1521.55; Axis Bank 1.25 per cent down at Rs 712.55; Tech Mahindra 1.01 per cent down at Rs 1721.65; Sun Pharma 0.82 per cent down at Rs 853.20 and Power Grid Corporation 0.77 per cent down at Rs 206.20. (ANI)