The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes came off intraday highs in last hour of trade but the markets were on track to snap their 6-day losing streak. ICICI Bank, Infosys, HDFC, Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services and ITC were among the top contributors towards gain in the Sensex. The Sensex rose as much as 786 points and the Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 11,433. In the last six sessions, the equity markets witnessed a massive selloff in which Sensex lost 7.32 per cent and the NSE Nifty 50 index nosedived 7.62 per cent on fears of the fast-spreading coronavirus hampering the global economic growth.
In the last six days of carnage in equity markets investors' wealth worth Rs 11.84 lakh crore was wiped.
Meanwhile, the equity benchmarks bounced back on Monday on the back of a short covering rally, analysts said.
As of 2:59 pm, the Sensex traded 0.72 per cent or 274 points higher at 38,571 and the NSE Nifty 50 index surged 0.61 per cent or 68 points to 11,270.
All the 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE were trading higher led by the S&P BSE Information Technology index's 3.1 per cent gain. S&P BSE Teck, Power, Metal, Telecom, Basic Materials, FMCG, Bankex and Capital Goods indexes also rose between 1-2.9 per cent each.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as the S&P BSE MidCap index advanced 1.3 per cent and S&P BSE SmallCap index climbed 1.5 per cent.
45 of 50 shares on the Nifty 50 basket were trading higher. Eicher Motors was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 4.5 per cent to Rs 17,353. HCL Technologies, Infosys, ICICI Bank, JSW Steel, ICICI Bank, Coal India, Bharti Infratel, Nestle India, Zee Entertainment, Power Grid, TCS and Vedanta were also among the gainers.
On the flipside, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, Kotak Mahindra Bank, GAIL India and Axis Bank were among the notable losers.
The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 1,516 shares were trading higher while 709 were among the laggards.
