Indian stocks gained for the second day, today. Know why!

Indian stocks gained for a second day on Thursday as traders covered a part of their short positions in the derivatives space owing to the last day of the monthly expiry of futures and options contracts. Technology, media and FMCG shares were in demand.

The Nifty rose 22 points to shut the week and this expiry at 7,868 points. Tata Power, Lupin, Zee Entertainment, Bajaj Auto and Tech Mahindra were the top five gainers on the Index while Coal India, ONGC, Larsen, Tata Steel and Vedanta slipped in trade. The Nifty's Advance-Decline Ratio stood at 27/23. The most traded stocks on the National Stock Exchange were Lupin, Reliance Industries and Motherson Sumi.

Local markets are shut on Friday due to a holiday.

The broader markets, meanwhile, edged up in trade on the NSE. As a consequence, the CNX 100, the CNX 200 and the CNX 500 Indices closed with gains exceeding 0.2 percent each. The Mid Cap and the Small Cap benchmarks also had a shade of green on Thursday.

The trend was mixed in the sectoral space with benchmarks representing the software, media and FMCg sectors surging in late trade. Gains were also visible in the pharma and realty sectors. Meanwhile, the CNX Energy and the Bank Nifty Indices slipped in trade.

Image credit: Indiatimes

The mood was equally flat on the Bombay Stock Exchange where the Sensex edged 41 points higher to 25,863. Dr. Reddy's, Maruti, ITC and Infosys were among the top gainers on the index while ICICI, Hindalco and Sun Pharma dropped below their Wednesday's close.

Sentiment in the broader market favoured the bulls with 1,418 shares gaining compared with 1,044 that lost momentum.

Meanwhile, Nifty futures closed flat, as expected, on the last day of this month's expiry. They shut shop at 7,869 points. Top performing futures in September included IDBI, Just Dial, Reliance Capital and JP Associates. While Bharat Forge, Motherson Sumi and SKS Micro were the top three losers on the monthly charts in the derivatives space