Sensex gets back on feet, Nifty takes 9,300 on buying push

Mumbai: The flagship Sensex witnessed a mild recovery on Monday while the Nifty took back the key 9,300 level on the back of uninterrupted buying by domestic investors even as their foreign counterparts looked the other way.

After a strong opening, the BSE 30-share gauge reclaimed the 30,000-mark to hit a high of 30,016.04, before closing at 29,926.15, up 67.35 points, or 0.23 percent.

It had lost 267 points in the previous session on Friday on global weakness due to a renewed slide in crude oil prices.

The 50-share Nifty retook the 9,300-mark, scaled a high of 9,338.70 before ending up 28.75 points, or 0.31 percent, at 9,314.05.

"The market gained on global optimism led by favourable outcome of French presidential election and the government's decision to give more powers to RBI to deal with stressed assets. The merger of cement majors has been taken positively by investors and supported market sentiment," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

The weekend rally on the Wall Street on strong US jobs report and pro-European centrist Emmanuel Macron's victory in the French presidential election kept vibes positive.

Investors looked forward to the last leg of corporate earnings. A better-than-expected report card by a few and a stronger rupee kept spirits high.

Banking stocks extended gains on the latest empowerment of the RBI to tackle bad loans. ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, SBI, and HDFC Bank rose by up to 1.59 per cent.

Shares of Ambuja Cements and ACC surged 5.89 percent and 3.43 percent, respectively, after both decided to explore the merger option between them.

Lupin surged the most by climbing 2.32 percent, followed by Bharti Airtel (1.91 percent) ahead of its quarterly earnings tomorrow. Asian Paints, ONGC, Infosys, Sun Pharma, TCS, Hero MotoCorp too advanced.

Of the 30-share Sensex pack, 20 scrips ended higher while 10 closed lower.

As for BSE sectors, realty jumped 4.53 percent, followed by IT, technology, power and banking.

Broader markets looked good as they ended positive.

However, the point of worry was foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) who sold stocks worth Rs 363.98 crore, as per provisional data.

Globally, Asian shares ended higher after Macron beat his far-right, anti-EU rival to take the crown of French presidency. Key indices in Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan ended higher.

European indices were trading mixed in their late morning session.