Sensex Rises Over 200 Points, Nifty Trades Above 17,200

Indian equity benchmarks on Monday traded higher in opening deals, extending their gains for the fourth consecutive session.

Trends on the Nifty Futures on Singapore Exchange (SGX Nifty) indicated a cautious start for the domestic indices.

Asian shares were sluggish as China’s official measure of factory activity contracted in July.

Back home, the 30-share BSE Sensex surged 226 points or 0.39 per cent to 57,796 in the early trade, while the broader NSE Nifty moved 85 points or 0.50 per cent higher to trade at 17,243.

Mid- and small-cap shares were positive as Nifty Midcap 100 rose 0.27 per cent and small-cap climbed 0.32 per cent.

Nine out of the 15 sector gauges — compiled by the National Stock Exchange — were trading in the green. Sub-indexes Nifty Auto and Nifty Metal were outperforming the NSE platform by rising as much as 1.34 per cent and 0.84 per cent, respectively.

On the stock-specific front, M&M was the top Nifty gainer as the stock soared 5.91 per cent to ₹ 1,229.80. Cipla, Maruti, Tata Motors and PowerGrid were also among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was strong as 1,833 shares were advancing while 787 were declining on BSE.

On the 30-share BSE index, M&M< Maruti, PowerGrid, Reliance Industries, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finance, Wipro, Tata Steel, Dr Reddy’s, Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel and HCL Technologies were among the top gainers.

Also, shares of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the country’s biggest insurer and largest domestic financial investor, rose 0.37 per cent to trade at ₹ 680.35.

In contrast, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Axis Bank, Titan and TCS were trading in the red.

Sensex had jumped 712 points or 1.25 per cent to close at 57,570 on Friday, while Nifty had moved 229 points or 1.35 per cent higher to settle at 17,158.