The Indian equity benchmarks staged a strong up move on Monday led by gains in banking and financial services shares.
Availability of more COVID-19 vaccines raised expectations of a sustained economic recovery, with investors hoping for a strong corporate earnings season that gets underway later this week.
The Sensex rose as much as 416 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 15,845.The Sensex ended 395 points or 0.75 per cent to close at 52,880 and Nifty 50 index climbed 112 points to close at 15,834.A steady dip in COVID-19 cases, relaxation of pandemic-led curbs and a rise in daily vaccinations has boosted sentiment so far.
First-quarter corporate earnings - set to start when tech giant Tata Consultancy Services reports on July 8 - is on investors' radar to gauge the pick-up in business activity.Nine of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty Realty index's nearly 3 per cent gain.
Nifty Bank, Financial Services, Metal and Private Bank indices also rose over 1 per cent each.On the other hand, Nifty IT and Pharma indices slipped in trade.Mid- and small-cap shares witnessed buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index advanced 0.5 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index rose 0.8 per cent.On the primary market front, India PesticidesLimited shares made a strong listing on the bourses.
The shares of the agrochemicals company listed at Rs 360, a premium of 21.62 per cent on the BSE as against the issue price of Rs 296 and on the NSE, the shares listed at Rs 356.20, a premium of 20.34 per cent.Hindalco was top gainer in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock rose 3.8 per cent to close at Rs 390.
ONGC, State Bank of India, Tata Steel, Coal India, Eicher Motors, Larsen - Toubro, JSW Steel, Bajaj Finserv and Axis Bank also rose 1.3-2.4 per cent.On the flipside, Tech Mahindra, HDFC Life, Bharat Petroleum, Dr Reddy's Labs, HCL Technologies, Britannia Industries, Cipla, Wipro, Titan and Bharti Airtel were among the laggards.The overall market breadth was positive as 2,224 shares closed higher while 1,112 ended lower on the BSE.