Sensex gains 380 pts, Nifty above 19,500 mark in opening session of mahurat trading

Mumbai: Benchmark stock indices Sensex and Nifty rose by more than half a per cent in the opening session of special mahurat trading on Sunday driven by across-the-board buying by investors.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose by 380.86 or 0.59 per cent to 65,285.54 points with all its components trading in the green, marking a firm start of the new Samvat Year 2080.

The broader Nifty of the National Stock Exchange advanced 109.80 points or 0.57 per cent to 19,535.15 led by gains in IT, infra and energy shares.

Among the Sensex shares, Infosys rose the most by 1.37 per cent, followed by Larsen & Toubro (0.90 per cent), and Wipro (0.83 per cent).

HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, ITC, TCS, Kotak Bank, Asian Paints and Titan were among the lead gainers.

Broader markets also advanced with the BSE MidCap gaining 227.43 points or 0.70 per cent and BSE SmallCap by 452.11 points or 1.18 per cent.

All the sectoral indices were trading in positive territory led by industrials, IT, metal and services indices.

Muhurat trading is a one-hour, symbolic trading session conducted by Indian stock exchanges on Diwali, a Hindu festival considered auspicious for new beginnings, including investments.

Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty rebounded on Friday to close with marginal gains due to fag-end buying in power, utility and metal stocks amid weak global trends.

During the Samvat year 2079 ended on Friday, the BSE Sensex jumped 5,073.02 points or 8.47 per cent, while the Nifty climbed 1,694.6 points or 9.55 per cent.