The Indian equity benchmarks gained for second straight session on Monday with the Nifty 50 index closing above its important psychological level of 18,000 for first time since November 15, 2021 and Sensex rallying as much as 683 points. Investors have turned bullish towards equities on hopes of strong December quarter earnings from India Inc, analysts said.
The Sensex surged 651 points to close at 60,396 and Nifty 50 index climbed 191 points to settle at 18,003.
Indian tech companies TCS, Wipro and Infosys will kick start December quarter earnings season for Nifty 50 companies from Wednesday.
Buying was visible across the board as all the 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty PSU Bank index's over 3 per cent gain. Nifty Media, Realty, Private Bank, Financial Services, Auto and Bank indices also rose between 1.5-2.25 per cent.
Broader markets also witnessed buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.84 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 1.3 per cent.
UPL was top gainer in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock rose 4.6 per cent to close at Rs 825. Hero MotoCorp, Titan, State Bank of India, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Larsen & Toubro, HDFC, Coal India, Kotak Mahindra Bank and ITC also rose between 2-3 per cent.
On the flipside, Wipro, Nestle India, Divi's Labs, Asian Paints, Power Grid, Sun Pharma, Eicher Motors, Tata Consumer Products and Hindustan Unilever were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,638 shares ended higher while 1,002 closed lower on the BSE.
