New Delhi: Equity benchmark indices continued to touch fresh record highs on Monday with metal, pharma, auto and banking names supporting buoyant market sentiment.
At the closing bell, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 765 points or 1.36 per cent at 56,890 while the Nifty 50 rose by 226 points or 1.35 per cent to 16,931.
Except for Nifty IT which dipped by 0.6 per cent, all sectoral indices were in the green with Nifty metal up by 2.4 per cent, PSU bank by 2 per cent, pharma by 1.9 per cent and auto by 1.7 per cent.
Among stocks, Bharti Airtel rose by 5 per cent to Rs 625 per share after the telecom major said it plans to raise up to Rs 21,000 crore by selling shares to existing investors and prepare for the auction of 5G airwaves.
Index heavyweight Reliance Industries advanced by 2 per cent to Rs 2,273.75 per share while Axis Bank surged by 4 per cent to Rs 782.75.
Tata Steel moved up by 3.8 per cent while Hindalco rose by 2.3 per cent. The other prominent winners were Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India and Sun Pharma.
Meanwhile, Asian shares started the week with gains after US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell struck a more dovish tone than some investors expected in long-awaited speech on Friday.
Japan’s Nikkei climbed up by 0.54 per cent while Hong Kong shares were higher by 0.52 per cent. South Korea’s Kospi rose by 0.33 per cent.
Powell in a speech affirmed US economic recovery and explained why there is no rush to tighten monetary policy. He gave a detailed account of why he regards a spike in inflation as temporary and offered no signal on when the central bank plans to cut its asset purchases beyond saying it could be this year.
