Sensex Rises Over 450 Points, Nifty Above 17,800 Led By IT, Metal Shares

The Indian equity benchmarks jumped in Monday morning deals paced by gains in banking, information technology, financial services, metal, oil & gas and real estate shares amid positive cues from global markets. The Sensex rose as much as 521 points and Nifty 50 index moved above its important psychological level of 17,850. HDFC, Tata Consultancy Services, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Infosys, State Bank of India and Asian Paints were among the top movers in the Sensex.

As of 9:19 am, the Sensex was up 484 points at 59,715 and Nifty 50 index advanced 133 points or 0.75 per cent to 17,804.

Asian markets edged higher on Monday, led by a post-election jump in Japan's Nikkei, though bonds wobbled and the dollar firmed as traders braced for central bank meetings in Britain, Australia and the United States to define the rates policy outlook.

Japan's Nikkei rose 2.3 per cent to a one-month high after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's Liberal Democratic Party did better than expected at Sunday's election, with exit polls showing the party easily retaining a majority.

Back home, ten of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Realty index's over 2.5 per cent gain. Nifty IT, Metal, Consumer Durables and Bank indices also rose between 0.4-1 per cent.

On the other hand, Nifty Pharma, Auto, FMCG and PSU Bank indices were trading lower.

Broader markets were witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index and Smallcap 100 indexes rose 0.4 per cent each.

Among the individual shares, SAIL surged 10 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 126.50 after its standalone net profit jumped 11 times to Rs 4,304 crore in September quarter compared with Rs 393 crore during the same period last year.

Tata Steel rose 2.5 per cent to Rs 1,349 after the National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai bench approved scheme of amalgamation of Bamnipal Steel Limited (formerly known as Bhushan Steel Limited) into and with Tata Steel.

Shree Cements was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 3 per cent to Rs 29,530. Bharti Airtel, HCL Technologies, IndusInd Bank, Hindalco, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Bharat Petroleum, JSW Steel, Titan, Axis Bank and UltraTech Cement also rose between 1-3 per cent.

On the flipside, Tata Motors declined 1.6 per cent to Rs 476 ahead of its September quarter earnings announcement. UPL, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv, Nestle India, Hindustan Unilever, Reliance Industries, Sun Pharma and Britannia Industries were also among the losers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,815 shares were trading higher while 767 were declining on the BSE.