Stock market gains for third day in a row

Our Correspondent

The stock market gained for the third day in a row. The three-day gains almost offset the losses of last Thursday’s sharp fall. The market started with a loss and then moved on to a gain. At the same time the market was volatile.

The Sensex was up 112 points on October 20 and the Nifty was up 23 points. The Sensex closed at 40,544 points. It had earlier climbed to 40,732.01 points. Similarly, Nifty closed at 11,896 points, up 11,949 points.

IT stocks were the main gainers on the day. The Nifty IT index was up 1.41 per cent. Shares of Mind Tree and HCL Tech gained over 4 per cent.

At the same time, public sector bank shares came under selling pressure. The Nifty Public Sector Bank Index lost 1.43 per cent.

The majority of Nifty stocks traded higher on the day. Out of the 50 stocks in the Nifty, 27 stocks gained while 23 stocks lost ground. HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, Asian Paints, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel were the top five gainers. HCL Tech gained 4.27 per cent. Tech Mahindra and Asian Paints gained over 2 per cent each.

Britannia, ONGC, GAIL, IOC and UPL were the top five losers in the Nifty. These stocks lost over 2 per cent.