Sensex rallies over 350 pts in early trade; Nifty tops 17,600

Mumbai: Equity benchmark Sensex jumped over 350 points in early trade on Monday, tracking gains in index heavyweights Reliance Industries, HDFC twins, and ICICI Bank.

After surging to 59,156.62 in the opening session, the 30-share Sensex was trading 340.95 points or 0.58 percent higher at 59,106.53. Similarly, the Nifty rose 98.40 points or 0.56 percent to 17,630.45.

Bharti Airtel was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising around 2 percent, followed by Dr. Reddy’s, SBI, Bajaj Finserv, Sun Pharma, and HDFC.

On the other hand, Tata Steel, Nestle India, HUL, Titan, and PowerGrid were among the gainers.

In the previous session, the 30-share index ended 360.78 points or 0.61 percent lower at 58,765.58, and Nifty declined 86.10 points or 0.49 percent to 17,532.05.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 131.39 crore on Friday, as per exchange data.

According to V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, the dollar index slipping to 94.05 and the US 10-year yield slipping below 1.5 percent can be interpreted as indicative of the return of risk-on in equity markets.

However, news from China can turn out to be a drag. China is trying to limit the damage to its real estate sector without bailing out Evergrande, he said, adding that an inevitable consequence will be a slowdown of the Chinese economy which will have implications for commodity prices and currencies of commodity exporters.

“Back home, India”s exports are booming and are in line to touch the USD 400 billion mark in FY22,” he noted.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Hong Kong and Tokyo were trading with heavy losses, while Shanghai and Seoul were closed for holidays.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude fell 0.30 percent to USD 79.04 per barrel.