The Indian equity benchmarks surged on Monday led by gains in Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, ITC, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Larsen & Toubro. The Sensex rose as much as 430 points and Nifty 50 index reclaimed its important psychological level of 17,600 despite weak global cues.
As of 10:43 am, the Sensex was up 357 points at 59,160 and Nifty 50 index rose 93 points to 17,632.
Most of the Asian markets were trading lower with Japan's Nikkei down 0.09 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.33 per cent and South Korea's KOSPI dropped 0.24 per cent.
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Stocks gave up an early rally and ended lower on Wall Street, marking their third losing week in a row.
Indexes had opened higher following a report on the job market that showed a moderate slowdown in hiring. That stoked cautious optimism that the Federal Reserve may not need to be as aggressive with high interest rates in its fight against inflation.
Indexes turned lower in the afternoon after Russian energy giant Gazprom said it wouldn’t reopen a natural gas pipeline to Germany for now, a bad sign for Europe’s ongoing struggle with higher energy prices.
Back home, buying was visible across board as 13 of fifteen sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by Nifty Media index's 1.75 per cent gain. Nifty Metal, Bank, Financial Services, PSU Bank, Private Bank, Realty and Consumer Durable indices also rose between 0.5-1 per cent.
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On the other hand, select healthcare and oil & gas shares were facing selling pressure.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.3 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced nearly 1 per cent.
Hindalco was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 2.43 per cent to Rs 425. JSW Steel, HCL Technologies, Tata Steel, NTPC, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Reliance Industries, ITC, Cipla and Larsen & Toubro also rose between 1-2 per cent.
On the flipside, Apollo Hospitals, Bajaj Auto, Eicher Motors, Divis Labs, Nestle India, Wipro and HDFC Life were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,203 shares were advancing while 1,208 were declining on the BSE.
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