The Indian equity benchmarks rose on Monday, led by auto stocks after monthly data showed an uptick in July retail sales, with Mahindra & Mahindra leading gains on the back of posting a quarterly profit last week.
By 1:21 pm, the blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index was up 1 point at 16239 and Sensex rose 50 points to 54,327.
"There is good buying from foreign institutional investors, and we can expect the market to rise further this week and the next," said Gaurav Garg, head of research at CapitalVia Global Research.
Indian shares notched gains for four out of five sessions last week, scaling record peaks on Wednesday thanks to ample liquidity and strong corporate earnings momentum. Both indexes gained 3 per cent last week.
The Nifty Auto index rose 0.48 per cent on Monday, after data from India's Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations showed total vehicle retail sales for July rose 34.12 per cent from a year ago.
Automaker Mahindra & Mahindra and financial services firm Bajaj Finserv were the top two gainers on the Nifty, adding 2.5 per cent and 2.0 per cent, respectively.
The carmaker reported a profit for its first quarter on Friday, as demand for passenger vehicles and tractors improved.
Shares of industrial machine parts maker Rolex Rings rose as much as 40.3 per cent in their market debut.
Meanwhile, Nifty's metal and energy sub-indexes inched 0.19 per cent and 0.18 per cent lower, respectively.
Benchmark indexes in the United States closed at record highs on Friday following strong jobs data, while broader Asian shares inched lower early on Monday amid sharp losses in gold and oil prices.
