The Indian equity benchmarks rallied for fifth straight session on Monday as investor sentiment got a boost from fall in crude oil prices in international markets. The Sensex rose as much as 995 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 16,888. Reports suggesting India could by crude oil and other commodities from Russia at discounted prices also helped in retaining bullish sentiment on Dalal Street, analysts added.
The Sensex advanced 936 points or 1.68 per cent to close at 56,486 and Nifty 50 index climbed 241 points to settle at 16,871.
U.S. benchmark crude oil lost $3.13 to $106.20 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It surged $3.31 per barrel on Friday to $109.33 per barrel.
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Brent crude oil, the standard for international pricing, declined $2.63 to $110.04 per barrel.
Back home, the government of India is considering Russia’s offer to buy oil and commodities at a discounted price, Reuters reported citing sources.
As per the report, out of 80 per cent of India's oil imports, 2 to 3 per cent account from Russia currently. However, with soaring oil prices, India is planning to increase its oil imports from Russia. Meanwhile, the government is also considering introducing the Rupee payments option to continue trade with Russia, as the latter is banned from the SWIFT international banking system.
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Nine of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty Bank index's over 2 per cent gain. Nifty Financial Services, IT, Media, PSU Bank and Private Bank indices also rose between 1.7-2.2 per cent.
On the other hand, FMCG, Metal, Pharma, Oil & Gas and Healthcare indices closed lower on the NSE.
Mid- and small-cap shares underperformed their larger peers but witnessed a mild buying interest. Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indexes rose 0.2 per cent each.
Among the individual shares, Shares of One97 Communications, the parent of financial technology firm Paytm, plunged as much as 13.25 per cent to hit record low of Rs 672 after the Reserve Bank of India directed the Paytm Payments Bank to stop onboarding of new customers and directed the firm to appoint an IT audit firm to conduct a comprehensive System Audit of its IT system.
Shares of parent of Domino's franchise operator in India, Jubilant FoodWorks, fell as much as 15 per cent to hit fresh 52-week low of Rs 2,444 after its Chief Executive Officer Pratik Rashmikant Pota resigned from the company.
Infosys was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 3.8 per cent to close at Rs 1,891. HDFC Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Maruti Suzuki, HDFC, Titan, Wipro, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Larsen & Toubro and Mahindra & Mahindra also rose between 1.4-3.25 per cent.
On the flipside, Indian Oil, ONGC, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Motors, HDFC Life, Sun Pharma, Coal India, JSW Steel and Bharat Petroleum were among the losers.
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The overall market breadth was neutral as 1,750 shares ended higher while 1,723 closed lower on the BSE.
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