4th straight day of gains for Sensex

Indian markets started off the week with smart gains extending winning streak to fourth straight trading session. Today’s upswing was led by the PSU, Auto and the Pharma stocks. The BSE 30-share Sensex gained 82 points to end at 16,945 and NSE Nifty advanced 20 points at 5,086.

Markets in Asia ended mixed; the Nikkei in Japan ended flat, Australia's S&P/ASX slipped by 0.6% and while the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong ended unchanged.

European indices were trading mixed as well, the DAX in Germany was up 0.6%, the CAC 40 index in France was up 0.2% and the FTSE in the UK was almost unchanged.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, BSE PSU index was the top gainer, the index was up 2.7%, followed by BSE Auto index was up 1.9% and BSE Pharma index was up 1.8%. Even the BSE Mid-Cap index ended higher by 1.8% and the Small-Cap index gained 0.6%.

Among the major losers were, BSE Realty index was the top loser the index lost 0.8% followed by BSE IT index down 0.5%.

Outside the frontline indices, the big gainers in the broader market were Hindustan Copper, United Phos, RCF, Tulip and NMDC. On the other hand, losers included Punj Lloyd, REI Agro, Apollo Hosp and Fortis Healthcare.