Sensex rises 558 points

Mumbai: Benchmarks made a winning start to the week on Monday as investors snapped up banking, consumption and energy stocks despite a grim situation on the Covid-19 front.

A rebounding rupee, which climbed 28 paise against the US dollar, added to the momentum, traders said. The 30-share BSE Sensex opened on the front foot and remained in the positive territory throughout the session, closing at 48,386.51 - up 508.06 points or 1.06 per cent.

On similar lines, the broader NSE Nifty jumped 143.65 points or 1 per cent to finish at 14,485. Axis Bank was the top performer in the Sensex pack, rallying 4.40 per cent. ICICI Bank spurted 3.63 per cent after the company reported a nearly four-fold jump in March quarter consolidated profit over the weekend. UltraTech Cement, SBI, HUL, PowerGrid, Bajaj Auto and Reliance Industries were among the other prominent gainers.

On the other hand, HCL Tech, HDFC Bank, Maruti, Sun Pharma, TCS, NTPC and ITC were the laggards, dropping up to 2.87 per cent. "Domestic equities shrugged off rising Covid-19 cases and rebounded mainly led by sharp recovery in financials," said Binod Modi, Head Strategy at Reliance Securities. Barring pharma, most of key sectoral indices traded in green.

Strong March quarter performance led ICICI Bank to recovery sharply, while HCL Technologies witnessed sell-off due to subdued 4Q performance, he added. The market may remain volatile in the coming days as Covid cases continue to be high, with April F&O expiry and upcoming FOMC meeting being crucial events this week, said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

With 3,52,991 people testing positive for coronavirus infection in a day, the highest so far, India's total tally of Covid-19 cases has climbed to 1,73,13,163 while active cases have crossed the 28-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday. The death toll increased to 1,95,123 with a record 2,812 new fatalities.

Sectorally, the BSE realty, metal, basic materials, bankex, energy, consumer durables and finance indices rallied as much as 3.68 per cent, while healthcare ended in the red. Broader BSE midcap and smallcap indices spurted up to 0.88 per cent.