Nifty closes with modest gain ahead of expiry; BPCL up 6.9 per cent

The Nifty remained positive throughout the session though it turned choppy in the second half of trade, ahead of tomorrow's F&O expiry. It closed above an important psychological 5,100 mark while the Sensex ended just below  17,200 levels. Positive global cues lent support to Indian indices.

Heavyweight Reliance Industries helped the markets to major extent. It remained positive as it will go ex-bonus tomorrow. It closed 0.8% higher while went up over 2% during the day. The company had declared 1:1 bonus in the month of October.

Shares of oil & gas, FMCG, banking (barring ICICI Bank), select technology, cement, auto and metal companies helped the indices while realty, power and telecom stocks along with ICICI Bank, Tata Motors and Jaiprakash Associates capped the gains to major extent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 17,198.95, up 67.87 points and the Nifty was up 17.60 points to settle at 5,108.15. The broader indices ended marginally lower.

The Nifty November futures will expire on Thursday, which closed with 4 points premium while December futures with 17 points premium as per provisional data. Rollovers approached 60% mark today. The Nifty Open Interest PCR (put-call ratio) surged to 1.70.

On the global front, Asian markets ended higher. Shanghai bounced back 2%, after it lost 3.5% yesterday. Hang Seng was up 0.84%. Among others, Nikkei, Kospi, Straits Times and Taiwan Weighted gained 0.3-0.5%. European markets went up 0.6% and US index futures were trading 0.4% higher, at the time of writing this report.