Sensex up 77 points, Nifty ends above 7950 points

Mumbai: Equity benchmarks ended at new closing high on Thursday. The Sensex rose 77.96 points to 26638.11 led by capital goods, FMCG, oil & gas and private banks. The Nifty closed above the 7950 on the expiry day for August derivative contracts, up 18.30 points at 7954.35.

The BSE Midcap index under-performed benchmarks, falling 0.3 per cent. About 1385 shares have advanced, 1546 shares declined, and 116 shares are unchanged.

BHEL topped the buying list, up 4 per cent followed by ITC, L&T, ICICI Bank, ONGC, Wipro, M&M, Dr Reddy's Labs and GAIL with 1-2 per cent.