New Delhi, Sep 29 (IANS): On the first day of the October series, Indian markets started strong and continued to build on the gains through the session, barring last 45 minutes of trade, where Nifty witnessed minor profit booking and fell more than 100 points from day’s high of 19726, says Devarsh Vakil - Deputy Head Retail Research, HDFC Securities.

Smaller stocks represented by Nifty Mid and small cap 100 Index outperformed the Nifty where they gained 1.08 per cent and 0.99 per cent respectively as against 0.59 per cent rise in the Nifty.

Advancing shares outnumbered the declining shares as advance decline ratio stood at 1.85 levels on BSE, highest since 14-September. Cash market volumes were lower as compared to recent averages, he said.

All the sectoral Indices ended in the green except Nifty IT.

IT stocks were impacted as Accenture, the IT services giant reported its Q4 revenue numbers within its targeted range but fell short of estimates.

The company forecasted the first-quarter revenue below the Wall Street targets signaling that high inflation and interest rates pressures will hurt demand through next year, he said.

Amongst the sectors, Nifty Pharma, Healthcare, Media and Nifty PSU Banks were major gainers, he added.