Mumbai: The BSE Sensex zoomed 342 points and the NSE Nifty reclaimed the 10,800 mark in Monday’s session, driven by IT and financial stocks, amid heavy foreign and domestic fund inflow.
Domestic equities tracked positive cues from other Asian and European markets after US President Donald Trump announced extension of the March 1 deadline for increasing tariff on import of Chinese products.
The 30-share index ended 341.90 points, or 0.95 per cent, at 36,213.38; while the broader Nifty soared 88.45 points, or 0.82 per cent, to conclude the session at 10,880.10 after shuttling between 10,887.10 and 10,788.05.
The Sensex had shed 27 points in Friday’s trade. “Market rally was fuelled by signs of progress in US-China trade talks and a gradual turnaround in foreign institutional investors’ liquidity,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, adding that strengthening rupee is also boosting investor sentiment.
The rupee firmed 17 paise to 70.97 against the dollar in afternoon trade. Besides, covering up of short positions by speculators ahead of February derivatives expiry on Thursday also added to the momentum, brokers said.
Yes Bank was the top performer in the Sensex pack, surging 3.24 per cent, followed by TCS up 3.07 per cent. Other Sensex gainers included Infosys up 2.94 per cent, IndusInd Bank 1.95 per cent, HCL Tech 1.87 per cent, Bharti Airtel 1.73 per cent, HDFC Bank 1.59 per cent, Sun Pharma 1.30 per cent, Bajaj Auto 1.08 per cent, ICICI Bank 1.07 per cent and Vedanta 1.03 per cent. Hero MotoCorp, ITC, Bajaj Finance, M&M, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, NTPC, HDFC Ltd, HUL, Axis Bank and Maruti Suzuki too ended with gains up to 0.99 per cent.
Laggards were Coal India falling 0.39 per cent, SBI 0.35 per cent, Kotak Bank 0.32 per cent, Asian paint 0.23 per cent, L&T 0.20 per cent, ONGC 0.20 per cent and PowerGrid 0.05 per cent.
With the news of easing trade tensions, IT stocks staged a strong rally in domestic bourses, led by the index heavyweights, and followed by financial stocks, said Sunil Sharma,
Chief Investment Officer, Sanctum Wealth Management. BSE IT index rose 2.463 per cent, teck 2.11 per cent, auto 1.11 per cent, bankex 0.86 per cent, healthcare 0.74 per cent, FMCG 0.56 per cent, metal 0.38 per cent, power 0.31 per cent and capital goods 0.14 per cent.
On the other hand, infrastructure index fell 1.10 per cent, realty 0.86 per cent, oil & gas slipped 0.07 per cent and PSU 0.05 per cent.
The broader markets, too, were in better form with the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rising 0.74 per cent and the Mid-Cap index gained 0.43 per cent.
Shares of state-run oil marketing companies such as BPCL and HPCL fell up to 2.48 per cent on rising crude prices overseas where Brent crude touched a three-month high of USD 67.73 per barrel. Brent crude futures were trading 0.24 per cent higher at USD 67.41 per barrel. (PTI)
