Indian shares ended higher on Monday, with the Nifty index hitting the 18,000 mark after almost two months, boosted by gains in public sector banks and auto stocks ahead of quarterly earnings reports this week.
The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index ended up 1.07% at 18,003.30, levels it last scaled in mid-November, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex closed 1.09% higher at 60,395.63. Both indexes logged their eighth session of gains in 11.
All major Nifty sub-indexes settled higher, with the PSU Banks index advancing the most with a 3.2% gain.
Nifty’s Auto index added almost 2%.
The Nifty IT index index closed up 0.2%. Tata Consultancy Services rose more than 3% after the software heavyweight said it plans to consider a share buyback.
“The market expects Q3 results starting this week to be very good, particularly for IT and financials,” said V.K. Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
