Sensex, Nifty rise on strong global cues led by ITC

The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap up opening on Monday led by gains in index heavyweights like ITC, ICICI Bank , Infosys, HCL Technologies, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries and Tata Consultancy Services. The Sensex rose as much as 449 points and Nifty 50 index reclaimed its important psychological level of 25,100 amid strong cues from global markets.

As of 9:20 am, the Sensex was up 276 points at 81,965 and Nifty 50 index rose 91 points to 25,106,

Asian stocks rallied and the dollar reached a fresh seven-week peak on the yen on Monday after blowout US labour data dispelled fears of a recession and spurred a sharp paring of rate-cut bets.

Japan's Nikkei led regional equity gains with a 2 per cent rally given additional momentum by the softer yen.

Australia's stock benchmark added 0.12 per cent and South Korea's Kospi gained 0.29 per cent.

Crude oil prices eased from a one-month peak even as Israel bombed targets in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, with Monday marking one year since the Hamas attack that triggered the war.

Back home, buying was visible across board as all the 13 sector gauges, barring the measure of consumer durables shares, were trading higher led by the Nifty IT index's nearly 1 per cent gain. Nifty Realty, PSU Bank, Bank, Auto, Financial Services and Media indices also rose around 0.5 per cent each.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.32 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.52 per cent.

Among the individual shares, Heidelberg Cement rose as much as 15 per cent to hit fresh 52-week high of Rs 251.65 after reports suggested that Adani Group is in talks with German parent of Heidelberg Cement to buy the Indian unit in a deal worth $1.2 billion.

ITC was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose nearly 2 per cent to Rs 512.55 after the company informed exchanges that it has received nod from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for demerger of its hotels business into a separate entity.

Trent, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HCL Technologies, HDFC Life, Apollo Hospitals, ICICI Bank , Shriram Finance, Wipro and Grasim also rose between 0.8-1.7 per cent.

On the flipside, Titan, Adani Ports, ONGC, Hindalco, HDFC Bank, NTPC, Adani Enterprises and Britannia were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,771 shares were declining while 1,454 were were advancing on the BSE.

(With Reuters inputs)