Markets zoom amid buying in IT, banking sectors

Mumbai: Benchmark Sensex and Nifty spurted over one per cent on Monday following hectic buying in IT, oil and gas and banking shares bolstered by firm global trends. Rising for a second straight session, the 30-share BSE Sensex rallied 760.37 points or 1.41 per cent to settle at 54,521.15. During the day, it jumped 795.88 points or 1.48 per cent to 53,760.78. The broader NSE Nifty advanced 229.30 points or 1.43 per cent to 16,278.50 as 41 of its constituents advanced.

Stock markets opened on a positive note following gains in Asian markets. Key indices extended gains in afternoon session after buying in IT, banking, teck and capital goods stocks.

"Gains in frontline blue-chip stocks such as Infosys, Tech Mahindra also helped to lift the markets," said Narendra Solanki, head (fundamental research), Anand Rathi-Investment Services.

"Strong US retail sales data scaled down the worries of an aggressive rate hike higher than 75bps providing the much-needed optimism to global equities. The European Central Bank, in its meeting this week, is set to increase its interest rates for the 1st time to contain record-high inflation," said Vinod Nair, head (research) at Geojit Financial Services. S Ranganathan, head (research) at LKP securities, adds: "The 1.5% upmove seen today in the benchmark indices reflects the optimism behind the progress of the south-west monsoon as the BFSI & IT index led from the front with good support coming in from the broader market stocks."

"Markets are largely mirroring their global counterparts, especially the US, while domestic factors like macroeconomic data and earnings cause volatile swings in between," said Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking Ltd.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) went in selling mode again as they offloaded shares worth Rs 1,649.36 crore in the capital market on Friday, as per exchange data.

Among sectoral indices, Nifty IT index snapped its five-day losing streak and jumped the most by 3.17 per cent. Nifty Metal rose by 2.49 per cent, Banking by 1.95 per cent and Consumer Durables by 1.45 per cent. In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge jumped 1.49 per cent and smallcap index climbed 1.39 per cent. Among BSE sectoral indices, IT jumped the most by 3.07 per cent, followed by teck (2.96 per cent), metal (2.72 per cent), bank (2.08 per cent), basic materials (1.97 per cent) and capital goods (1.96 per cent). FMCG was the only laggard. Market breadth was positive as of the total 3,612 share traded on BSE, 2,350 scrips advanced while 1,095 stocks declined.