Sensex Surges Over 600 Points, Nifty Trades Above 17,500; Eicher Motors, Tata Motors Among Top Gainers

New Delhi: The Indian equity benchmarks started the first trading session of 2022 on a positive note led by gains in IT, auto and financial stocks. Asian shares edged higher on Monday as South Korea's KOSPI gained 0.40 per cent and the Shanghai Composite index jumped as much as 0.57 per cent.

Back home, as of 12:04 pm, the 30-share Sensex pack was up 610 points or 1.05 per cent at 58,663 and the broader NSE Nifty moved 171 points or 0.99 per cent higher to 17,525.

Mid- and small-cap shares were trading in green as Nifty Midcap 100 index was up 0.92 per cent and small-cap shares were trading 1.29 per cent higher.

On the stock-specific front, Eicher Motors was the top Nifty gainer as the stock surged 4.27 per cent to Rs 2,702.65. Tata Motors, Coal India and Bajaj Finserv were also among the gainers.

On the flipside, Cipla, Titan, Mahindra & Mahindra, Dr Reddy's and Divi's Lab were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,645 shares were advancing while 788 were declining on BSE.

On the 30-share BSE platform, Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank, TCS, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Maruti attracted the most gains with their shares rising as much as 1.96 per cent in afternoon trade.

UltraTech Cements, Tech Mahindra, Dr Reddy's and IndusInd Bank were among the losers.

However, investors remained cautious over the spike in Omicron cases in the country during the holiday weekend.

According to the health ministry data, India logged 33,750 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the highest since September 18 last year. The country witnessed a fresh wave of infections, including those of the Omicron variant during the weekend.

The benchmark BSE Sensex had surged 459.50 points or 0.80 per cent to end at 58,253.82 on Friday; while the broader NSE Nifty had gained 150.10 points or 0.87 per cent to settle at 17,354.05.