Fresh daily Covid infections drop below 4 lakh, death toll dips to 3,754 on Monday
The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex rallied over 350 points in early trade on Monday, riding on strong fourth-quarter earnings data and positive global cues, while the broader NSE Nifty neared 15,000 points. The country registered 3,66,161 fresh Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours.
The 30-share Sensex was trading 353.64 points or 0.72 per cent higher at 49,560.11 in initial deals, with Dr Reddy’s being the top gainer with over 2 per cent rise, followed by ONGC, HDFC, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma and Kotak Bank, while UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finance, Nestle India and Infosys were among laggards. The Nifty50 index surged 114.85 points or 0.77 per cent to 14,938 in the opening trade on Monday.
The Sensex had climbed 256.71 points or 0.52 per cent to 49,206.47, and Nifty rose 98.35 points or 0.67 per cent to 14,823.15 at the close on Friday. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 1,142.75 crore, according to provisional exchange data.
“Domestic equities look good at the moment. Favourable global cues, steady March-quarter earnings along with encouraging commentary, liquidity support announced by the RBI, and absence of nationwide lockdown have aided domestic equities to shrug off the rising Covid-19 cases in the country,” said Binod Modi, Head of Strategy at Reliance Securities.
The elevated daily caseload and rising infections in the hinterlands may weigh on investors’ sentiments and prevent the market from taking any decisive up-move, Modi alerted.
After recording over four lakh fresh cases for four days in a row, India saw the number of fresh infections coming down to 3,66,161 on Monday, according to the health ministry. The death toll climbed to 2,46,116 with 3,754 more lives lost in the pandemic in the last 24 hours, the ministry data said.
The number of active cases of the coronavirus infection in the country has gone up to 37,45,237, accounting for 16.53 per cent of its total caseload, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate was recorded at 82.39 per cent.
The positive sentiment in the market helped the Indian currency to open in the black on Monday. The rupee rallied 17 paise to 73.34 against the dollar in early trade.
Bourses in Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul were trading on a positive note in mid-session deals, while Hong Kong was in the red, whileBrent crude was trading 0.44 per cent higher at $68.58 per barrel.