Sensex, Nifty end in green; telecom sector top gainer

Rise in telecom shares on Thursday helped domestic markets in maintaining gains amidst the volitality ahead of F&Os monthly expiry.

Telecom stocks closed up 1.82%. Among top gainers under the sectors were Idea Cellular (6.40%), Reliance Communication (3.22%), Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (2.65%), Bharti Airtel (1.36%), MTNL (1.35%).

Bharti Airtel announcement to acquire Telenor India lifted telecom shares. The company made the announcement before the markets opening. 

The company said that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Telenor South Asia Investments Pte Ltd (“Telenor”) to acquire Telenor (India) Communications Private Limited (“Telenor India”). 

According to the agreement, Airtel and Telenor India will merge and Airtel will take over Telenor India as soon as all necessary approvals are received. As part of the agreement, Airtel will take over outstanding spectrum payments and other operational contracts, including tower lease.

Sensex touched 29,000-mark for the first time in five-month. However, it trimmed it gains before closing at 28,892.97, up 28.26 points or 0.10%. NSE Nifty ended at 8,939.50, up 12.60 points or 0.14%.

Among the top gainers were TCS (2.99%), Wipro (2.53%), Infosys (1.73%), Bharti Airtel (1.36%) and ITC (0.83%). Among top losers were Reliance Industries (-2.07%), Asian Paint (-1.10%), Power Grid (-1.09%), Adani Ports (-0.87%) and NTPC (-0.78%). 

Rupee closed at 66.82 as against US Dollar, down 0.08 paisa or 0.12%.