Equity extend gains from previous week, Sensex up around 700 pts

New Delhi: Domestic equity indices extended their gains from the previous week and traded sharply higher in the morning session on Monday, in line with strong cues from the US and potential value buying at lower levels.

This is the third consecutive session rally in a row.

At 9.32 a.m, Sensex was at 53,416.84 points, up 688.86 points or 1.31 per cent, whereas nifty was 15,913.15 points, up 213.90 points or 1.36 per cent.

"Markets are taking comfort from their global counterparts but the recent move lacks decisiveness. And, we feel it's prudent to maintain a cautious stance until we see some concrete reversal signals," said Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking.

Meanwhile, market participants should focus on identifying the opportunities based on the sectoral trend. Auto, FMCG, and some pharma counters still look promising, while metals and PSU banks may continue to face pressure on the rise, Mishra said.

Among the individual stocks, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Infosys, JSW Steel, and Wipro were the top five gainers among the nifty 50 companies in the morning session, while only Apollo Hospitals was the loser among them, National Stock Exchange data showed.

"The jury is still out on whether this is a bear market or a corrective phase in a long-term bull market. After falling into the bear market territory, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 have smartly bounced back and this is getting reflected in other markets too. The 3 per cent bounce back in S&P last Friday indicates that pullbacks can be sharp and the consequent short-covering can surprise on the upside," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.