Sensex climbs 508 points, banking stocks surge

Equity benchmark indices remained bullish despite trimming some early gains on Monday following some reports that India's second wave of coronavirus will peak soon.

Strong corporate earnings and positive global cues also helped the market sentiment with domestic investors setting aside for a while concerns over the economic impact of lockdowns and weakness in rupee.

The BSE S&P Sensex closed 508 points or 1.06 per cent higher at 48,387 while the Nifty 50 ticked up by 144 points or 1 per cent to 14,485.

Except for Nifty pharma which dipped by 0.8 per cent, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in green zone with Nifty realty advancing by 3.4 per cent, PSU bank and private bank by 1.7 per cent each, financial service by 1.3 per cent and metal by 2 per cent.

Among stocks, Axis Bank moved up by 4.2 per cent to Rs 699.50 per share while ICICI Bank rose by 3.3 per cent and State Bank of India by 2.5 per cent.

JSW Steel was up by 3.4 per cent, UltraTech Cement by 3.3 per cent, Grasim by 3.2 per cent, Hindustan Unilever by 2.6 per cent and Eicher Motors by 2.1 per cent.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries rose by 1.7 per cent to Rs 1,937.45 per share after announcing starting of production from a gas field in block KG D6 off the east coast in collaboration with bp.

However, among the losers wre Cipla, Sun Pharma, HCL Technologies, Britannia, HDFC Bank, Maruti Suzuki and Hindalco.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks rose as signs the world economic recovery was well on track bolstered risk appetite.

South Korea's Kospi index rose 0.99 per cent on recovery hopes with eyes on corporate earnings while Japan's Nikkei reversed early losses to be up 0.36 per led by travel-related stocks.

But Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down by 0.43 per cent.

( With inputs from ANI )