Mumbai: Reversing a four-session slide, benchmark Sensex closed positive at 32,870 on Monday as investors cherry-picked recently beaten down stocks in IT, metal and healthcare space. Infosys was the top performer in the Sensex pack, rising 2.80%, after the IT major announced the appointment of Salil Parekh as managing director and chief executive officer.
Trading was volatile throughout the session ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monetary policy review and Gujarat elections later this week. The central bank is scheduled to announce the fifth bi- monthly policy of the current fiscal on 6 December. Fresh spell of buying by domestic investors in recently beaten down stocks helped the key indices to trade in the positive zone after four days of losses, brokers said.
After a strong start at 32,968.02, the Sensex reclaimed the 33,000-mark to hit a high of 33,008.62 points but profit- booking at higher levels capped the gains. It finally closed at 32,869.72, up 36.78 points, or 0.11%. The gauge had tanked 891.50 points in the previous four sessions as upbeat second quarter GDP numbers failed to dispel concerns over a widening fiscal deficit.
The 50-share NSE Nifty inched up 5.95 points, or 0.06%, to 10,127.75 points. Intra-day, it shuttled between 10,179.20 and 10,095.70.
“Market was sidewise and finally settled with minor gains as investors remained watchful ahead of two days RBI monetary policy starting from tomorrow. Rebound in IT stocks due to favourable developments in heavyweights gained investors confidence and capped the fall in the market,” said Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Financial Services.
Major gainers were Hindustan Unilever 1.37%, HDFC 1.25% and Tata Motors 1.06%. Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Dr Reddy’s, Axis Bank, L&T, Adani Ports, SBI, Wipro, Hero MotoCorp and TCS also advanced by up to 1.03%.
Shares of Biocon surged 15% after the biotechnology major said it has received regulatory approval to market a biosimilar of cancer drug Herceptin in the US.
Sectorally, the BSE IT index gained the most by rising 1.37%, followed by teck (1.08%), metal (0.50%) and healthcare (up 0.32%), oil and gas (0.31%) and consumer durables (0.30%). Realty, power, banking and auto sectoral indices ended in the red. The broader markets remained under pressure, with the small-cap index falling by 0.52% and mid-cap 0.09%.
Foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth a net Rs306.11 crore last Friday, as per provisional data. Domestic institutional investors also bought equities worth a net Rs176.19 crore.
Globally, in the Asian region, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.22% while Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.49%. Shanghai Composite Index too shed 0.24%. Among European markets, Frankfurt was up 1.06% while Paris rose 0.85% in their morning trade. London’s FTSE too was up 0.79%.PTI SUN DP SDG ABM