Benchmark stock indices Sensex and Nifty closed higher on Monday, driven by heavy buying in index major Reliance Industries and unabated foreign fund inflows.
However, correction in IT counters ahead of their quarterly earnings announcements scheduled to come later this week put a check on the markets rally.
Bouncing back from Friday’s decline, the 30-share BSE Sensex gained 63.72 points or 0.10 per cent to settle at 65,344.17. During the day, it climbed 353.04 points or 0.54 per cent to 65,633.49.
The NSE Nifty advanced 24.10 points or 0.12 per cent to end at 19,355.90.
From the Sensex pack, Reliance Industries jumped the most by 3.78 per cent. Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, UltraTech Cement, ICICI Bank and Tata Motors were the other biggest gainers.
Titan, HCL Technologies, Power Grid, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, Hindustan Unilever, Axis Bank and Nestle were among the major laggards.
According to exchange data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their buying activity as they bought equities worth ₹790.40 crore on Friday.
“Indian equities faced broad-based weakness, but the benchmark managed to stay marginally positive with the support of strong buying in heavyweight stocks. The weakness was led by IT stocks, as the sector is set to kick off the Q1 result season with expectations of soft earnings.
“Additionally, cues from the US markets are unfavourable, as concerns about another rate hike persist despite expectations of a fast cooling of future US CPI inflation data,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
In Asian markets, Shanghai and Hong Kong settled in the green while Seoul and Tokyo ended lower. Equity markets in Europe were trading in positive territory. The US markets ended with losses on Friday.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.80 per cent to USD 77.84 a barrel.
The BSE benchmark declined by 505.19 points or 0.77 per cent to 65,280.45 on Friday. The Nifty fell by 165.50 points or 0.85 per cent to 19,331.80.
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