Market Close: Sensex gains 329 points

Market was upbeat on Thursday as Rashtrapati Bhavan was preparing to host close to 8,000 guest who were to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the Prime Minister-elect, Narendra Modi for a second terms in office. HDFC twins and Reliance contributed the most to the index gains.

Even as the general mood is positive, there is a whole lot of suspense around who will get what ministry. Market is betting on Piyush Goyal becoming the Finance Minister in the place of Arun Jaitley who has asked for a break. Similarly, market is eagerly waiting to see who will head the ministries that fuel the economy, namely the Railways, Coal Ministry, Power, Road and Infrastructure Ministry. With Jaitley out, Modi's options are limited and he will have to make some tough choices.

Ahead of the swearing ceremony, Sensex closed at 39,831.97, up by 329.92 points or 0.84 per cent and Nifty50 closed at 111,945.90, up by 84.80 points or 0.71 per cent on Thursday. The advance decline ratio was in favour of advances with 32 stocks and 18 declines on Nifty.

Index heavyweight HDFC contributed most with 65.60 point to the Sensex gains, followed by Reliance 55.08 points, HDFC Bank 49.59 points, TCS 41.47 points and ICICI Bank and Infy contributed 22 points each.

Among the top gainers on BSE Sensex NTPC at Rs. 135.35, up by 3.44 per cent and Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance, TCS, Yes Bank and HDFC all up around 2 per cent. The loser were led by Sun Pharma up by 2.39 per cent, followed by M&M, IndusInd Bank, Vedanta, ONGC down by more than 1 per cent.

Sectorally, the banking and finance sector were the clear gainers with the popular index Nifty bank closing at 31,537.10, up by 241.55 points or 0.77 per cent, followed by Nifty IT up by 0.83 per cent. On the other hand, Nifty Auto and Nifty Metal were down by 0.56 per cent and 0.44 per cent.

Mid-cap and small-caps stocks were also upbeat. Nifty Mid-cap 100 gained 0.79 per cent, followed by Nifty Small-cap 100 up by 0.38 per cent.