Sensex, Nifty end marginally higher; Bharti Airtel, Nestle top gainers

Domestic equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty ended marginally higher on Thursday led by gains in index majors Bharti Airtel, Nestle India and TCS. After swinging between gains and losses, the 30-share Sensex ended 54.81 points or 0.09% higher at 58,305.07. Likewise, NSE Nifty settled at 17,369.25, up 15.75 points or 0.09%. Bharti Airtel, closing around 3% higher, was the top Sensex gainer followed by Nestle India, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finserv, HCL Tech and ITC. Titan, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Auto, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank were among the laggards. Sectoral indices on the NSE ended mixed. Nifty Media, closing nearly 3% higher, was the top sectoral gainer followed by Nifty FMCG and Nifty Metal. On the other hand, Nifty Realty, Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Bank closed in the red. Overall market breadth was positive as 1,844 stocks advanced on the BSE, while 1,345 declined and 161 remained unchanged. In Asia, stock exchanges in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul ended in the red, while Shanghai was in the green.