Benchmark indices staged a smart recovery from the day's lows despite a negative trend in global equities. Sensex, which crashed 750 points in early trade, ended 63 points lower at 48,718. Nifty, which lost 215 points intra day, managed to close 3 points higher at 14,634.
Titan, IndusInd Bank, RIL and Axis Bank were the top Sensex losers, shedding up to 4.58%.
On the other hand, Bharti Airtel, HUL, Maruti, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints and NTPC were the top gainers rising up to 4%.
Of 30 Sensex stocks 17 closed in the green. Meanwhile, small cap stocks were the performers of the day with their BSE index rising 341 points to 22,011.
BSE mid cap index closed 10 points higher at 20,322. Consumer durables and banking stocks were the top losers today with their BSE indices falling 644 points and 334 points, respectively.
Metal stocks capped the losses with their BSE index surging 261 points to close at 18,082.
Market cap of BSE listed firms stood at Rs 208.07 lakh crore at the end of trade today.
Active COVID-19 cases in India rose to 34,13,642 against 33,49,644 on Sunday, according to a Health Ministry update Monday morning.
Market breadth was positive with 1,779 stocks rising against 1,258 shares falling on BSE. 177 stocks were unchanged.
Volatility was high in trade today with India VIX surging 2.87% to 23.69. Intra day, the market's volatility gauge rose to 24.54.
Gaurav Ratnaparkhi, Head of Technical Research, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas said, "Nifty had entered a minor degree correction toward the end of the last week. Continuing with that, the index opened gap down. It attempted to extend below 61.8% retracement of the recent rise. However there was no follow through selling. On the contrary, the bulls rushed in to provide support and stretched their arms towards the end of the session. As a result, the index witnessed a smart recovery and closed in the green eventually. The index is expected to continue with the recovery and is likely to surpass the 15,000 mark in the short term. On the downside, today's low of 14,416 will act as a crucial support. "
Global markets
Germany's DAX climbed 0.6% to 15,226.91 while the CAC 40 in Paris was 0.5% higher, at 6,298.02. The futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials were up 0.5%.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.3% to 28,357.54 and the Kospi in South Korea slipped 0.7% to 3,127.20. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged less than 0.1% higher to 7,028.80. Shares also fell in Singapore and Taiwan.
On Friday, The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5% to 33,874.85 and the Nasdaq lost 0.9% to 13,962.68.