On a day of range-bound trading, stock markets saw select scrips closing with huge gains on Friday, the last trading for September. The roller-coaster ride ended with the BSE Sensex closing 38 points up at 27,865, while the NSE Nifty closed 20 points higher at 8,611.
Shares of real estate, automobile and industrial companies rose sharply, aided by what analysts would call bargain-hunting, after the previous day's crash that saw benchmark equity indices losing heavily on account of rising tensions between Indian and Pakistan.
The biggest sectoral gainer on the BSE was realty that rose 3.16 per cent. Other sectoral indices such as auto, energy and industrials also gained on a day when foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers of Indian equities worth Rs 1,028 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers worth Rs 1,560 crore.
Indiabulls Real Estate gained 8.41 per cent, DLF 4.28 per cent, HDIL 2.98 per cent and Godrej Properties 2.88 per cent.
Top Sensex gainers were GAIL (India), M&M, ONGC and Tata Steel, while stocks that dragged the index down included Cipla, ITC and Coal India.
Ashok Leyland gained 3.65 per cent at Rs 79.60.
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance gained 2.12 per cent to close at Rs 303.95, still far below the issue price of Rs 334 per equity share in the recently-concluded initial public offering.
ICICI Bank ended almost flat Rs 252.30, while Ceat shares hit a fresh 52-week-high of Rs 1,331.90 before closing at Rs 1,324.10, up 7.98 per cent. Hindustan Copper ended 3.78 per cent lower at Rs 59.75.
The rupee closed with a gain of 23 paise at Rs 66.62 to the US dollar.
Many automobile companies will be declaring their September volume sales data on Saturday (October 1).
