The Indian equity benchmarks surged on the first session of Samvat 2079 to mark the festival of lights Diwal. The Sensex surged as much as 687 points and Nifty 50 index moved above its important 17,750 led by gains in ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, HDFC, Infosys and Larsen & Toubro.
As of 6:20 pm, the Sensex rose 662 points or 1.12 per cent to 59,969 and Nifty 50 index was up 188 points at 17,768.
Meanwhile, European markets were trading on a strong note, Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.7 per cent after former Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced he will not run to lead the Conservative Party. Former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak is now the favorite to replace Liz Truss, who quit last week after her tax-cutting economic package caused turmoil in financial markets.
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Germany's DAX jumped 1.8 per cent and France's CAC 40 index climbed 2 per cent.
Hong Kong’s benchmark plunged 6.4 per cent on Monday as dismay over a lack of fresh policy initiatives from a Chinese Communist Party congress overshadowed a report that the No. 2 economy grew at a faster pace in the last quarter.
The dollar rose to nearly 150 yen, a day after the Japanese central bank reportedly again moved to stem the yen’s decline.
Overnight, Wall Street capped a volatile run for stocks with a broad rally Friday, contributing to sizable weekly gains for major indexes.
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Back home, buying was visible across sectors as all the 19 sector gauges compiled by the BSE were trading higher led by the S&P BSE Capital Goods index's nearly 2 per cent gain. IT, Power, Consumer Durables, Financial Services, Banking, Telecommunications, Utilities and Industrial shares were also witnessing buying interest in special Muhurat trading session.
Brokers said buying activity picked up pace as investors opened their books on the first session of Samvat 2079.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as S&P BSE MidCap index rose 0.6 per cent and S&P BSE SmallCap index advanced 1 per cent.
HDFC was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 2 per cent to Rs 2,379. Nestle India, Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank, Tata Consumer Products, HDFC Bank, NTPC, State Bank of India and ONGC also rose between 1.3-2 per cent.
On the flipside, Hindustan Unilever and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the notable losers.
The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,249 shares were advancing while 595 were declining on the BSE.
