The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex closed 84.03 points higher at 31,730.49, and the National Stock Exchange Nifty ended 33.50 points up at 9,917.90 on Thursday, after hovering around the flat line through the day ahead of the expiry of August derivative contracts.

Observers said that this and the expected release of the Gross Domestic Product data for the June quarter later in the day had made investors cautious. “Ahead of the F&O expiry, markets are very much range-bound,” Vaishali Parekh, research analyst at Prabhudas Lilladher, told Mint.

Wipro (2.54%), Bajaj Auto (2.24%), Reliance Industries (1.88%), Maruti Suzuki India (1.67%) and Cipla (1.44%) were the best performers on the Sensex, while Wipro (2.28%), Maruti (2.15%), Tata Power (2.06%), Reliance Industries (2%) and Bajaj Auto (1.76%) were in the green on the Nifty.

Among the poor performers on the Sensex were Coal India, Infosys, Mahindra and Mahindra, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories. Bosch, Bharti Infratel, Coal India, Infosys and Aurobindo Pharma were the biggest losers on the Nifty. The rupee traded at 64.0154 against the US dollar.