The benchmark indices ushered in the new year with stellar gains despite the outbreak of Covid-19 cases across the country and mixed sentiments from its global peers. Strong buying interest was witnessed in blue-chips and banking counters on Monday, market participants said. Equity investors added nearly Rs 3.52 lakh crore to their wealth on Monday as the overall market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies climbed to Rs 269.52 lakh crore.
The BSE Sensex advanced 929.40 points or 1.6% to close at 59,183.22 — with 26 out of the 30 constituents ending higher. Similarly, the Nifty-50 index gained 271.65 points or 17,625.70. Bajaj Finance was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, advancing 3.5%, followed by Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank and HDFC Bank. On the flip side, Dr Reddys Labs, M&M, Tech Mahindra, and Nestle ended being the top losers in the index.
Deepak Jasani, head of retail research, HDFC Securities, said: “Nifty began the new calendar year on a positive note on Jan 03. Nifty opened with a small gap up and kept rising steadily till about 1435Hrs. Nifty scored the biggest single day point gain in almost three weeks. At close Nifty was up 1.57% or 271.6 points at 17625.7. In the process, Nifty was the top performer in the Asian region. On a day when the volumes on the NSE fell back to recent averages, Realty, Oil & Gas, Metals, Capital Goods and Bank indices gained the most while Healthcare was the only index that ended in the negative.”
Sectorally, barring pharma, all other sectors witnessed buying interest and ended in the green. The Nifty Bank was the top performer, gaining more than 2.6%, led by shares of Federal Bank, RBL Bank, ICICI Bank, and AU Small Finance Bank. The broader markets also mirrored the benchmarks during the trading session on Monday. The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices closed higher by 1.1% each.
Overall, the advance-decline ratio favoured the bulls on Monday as nearly 2687 shares advanced on the BSE, whereas 874 shares ended in the red. Elsewhere in Asia, the markets ended with mixed figures. The Hang Seng and Nikkei 225 ended lower by 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively. China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.57% on Monday.
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