The Indian equity benchmarks ended Diwali's special Muhurat Trading session on a strong note led by gains in ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Infosys, Larsen & Toubro, State Bank of India and Reliance Industries. The Sensex rose as much as 687 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 17,777.
The Sensex ended 525 points higher at 59,832 and Nifty 50 index climbed 155 points to close at 17,730.
Brokers said buying activity picked up pace as investors opened their books on the first session of Samvat 2079.
Buying was visible across the board as all the 15 sector gauges, barring the index of FMCG shares, ended higher led by the Nifty Financial Services index's 1.3 per cent gain. Nifty Bank, PSU Bank, Private Bank and Auto indices also rose between 0.8-1 per cent each.
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Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.5 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index rose 0.9 per cent.
ICICI Bank was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose nearly 3 per cent to close at Rs 933 after it announced September quarter earnings on Saturday. The country's second largest private lender on Saturday reported a 31.43 per cent jump in its September quarter consolidated net profit at Rs 8,006.99 crore.
On a standalone basis, the second largest private sector lender reported a 37.14 per cent rise in September quarter net profit at Rs 7,557.84 crore, as against Rs 5,510.95 crore in the year-ago period.
The bank's total income grew to Rs 31,088 crore in the reporting quarter, while the overall expenses climbed to Rs 19,408 crore from Rs 18,027 crore.
Nestle India, State Bank of India, Larsen & Toubro, HDFC, UPL, HDFC Bank, Grasim Industries, Tata Consumer Products and JSW Steel also rose between 1.4-2.4 per cent.
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On the flipside, Hindustan Unilever, Kotak Mahindra Bank and HDFC Life were among the notable losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 2,659 stocks ended higher while 747 closed lower on the BSE.
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