Sensex Surges 700 Points, Nifty Above 17,700; Pharma Stocks Outperform

The Indian equity benchmarks surged on Monday, defying the weak cues from other Asian Markets, with the Sensex rising over 700 points and the Nifty 50 index advancing above its important psychological level of 17,700 led by gains in Reliance Industries, HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Infosys, Bajaj Finance and State Bank of India. Meanwhile, most of the Asian markets were trading lower with Japan's Nikkei down 0.95 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng falling 1.75 per cent and Taiwan Weighted down 0.6 per cent.

As of 10:32 am, the Sensex was up 708 points at 59,474 and Nifty 50 index advanced 195 points to 17,727.

On Friday, the Wall Street stocks surged to a higher close on Friday, kicking off the fourth quarter in a buying mood boosted by positive economic data, progress in the battle against COVID, and Washington developments on the potential passage of an infrastructure bill.

The Dow Jones advanced 1.43 per cent, S&P 500 rallied 1.15 per cent and Nasdaq climbed 0.82 per cent.

Back home, nine of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Pharma index's 1.4 per cent gain.

Nifty PSU Bank, Healthcare, Private Bank, Bank Realty, Media, Information Technology and Financial Services indices also rose between 1-1.7 per cent.

On the other hand, metal shares were witnessing a mild selling pressure.

Mid- and small-cap shares were outperforming their larger peers as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.8 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index surged over 1 per cent.

Among the individual shares, NTPC surged as much as 2.89 per cent to Rs 143.90 after Bloomberg reported that it is planning to raise Rs 15,000 crore through initial public offerings in three units including its renewables business, and the paring of a joint venture stake.

Divi's Labs was the top Nifty gainer, the stock rose nearly 6 per cent to Rs 5,113. Tata Motors, Bajaj Finserv, State Bank of India, Dr Reddy's Labs, HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra were also among the gainers.

On the flipside, Grasim industries, JSW Steel, UPL, Tata Steel, Eicher Motors, Indian Oil, Nestle India, hindalco, Power Grid, HDFC Life, Titan, Hindustan Unilever and Shree Cements were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,114 shares were advancing while 634 were declining on the BSE.