Financial stocks gain as RBI opens liquidity window for mutual funds

Equity benchmark indices trimmed early gains in the afternoon session on Monday but closed in the green with a surge in financial stocks after the Reserve Bank of India launched a special liquidity facility worth Rs 50,000 crore for mutual funds to ease the pressure due to coronavirus pandemic.

At the closing bell, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 416 points or 1.3 per cent at 31,743 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 128 points or 1.4 per cent at 9,282.

All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty private bank up by 3 per cent, IT by 2.4 per cent, financial service by 2 per cent.

Among stocks, FMCG major Britannia witnessed a gain of 7 per cent at Rs 3,277 per share. Private lender IndusInd Bank was up by 6.5 per cent while Kotak Mahindra Bank ticked up by 5.5 per cent, Axis Bank by 5.4 per cent and ICICI Bank by 3.4 per cent.

Bajaj Finserv and Bajaj Finance edged higher by 6.2 per cent and 3.6 per cent respectively. Hindalco, UPL and Nestle India too traded with a positive bias.

However, those which lost were NTPC, HDFC Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Dr Reddy and Bharti Airtel.

Meanwhile, Asian shares bounced as the Bank of Japan announced more stimulus steps to help cushion the economic impact of the coronavirus. The US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank will meet later in the week.

Japan's Nikkei gained by 2.7 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng by 1.88 per cent and South Korea's Kospi by 1.79 per cent.

( With inputs from ANI )