Financials & metals lifts Sensex by 508 points; Nifty near 14,500

After falling almost 2% last week benchmark equity indices staged a smart comeback Monday and recovered half of the last week losses led by strong buying seen in financial & metal stocks. At close, Sensex rose 508 points or 1.06% at 48386, and the Nifty ended at 14,485 rallied 143 points or 1.00%.

Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, UltraTech Cement, SBI and HUL were the top gainers on the Sensex rallying over 2.25%. On the downside, HCL Tech lost the most on the back of muted Q4 performance, followed by HDFC Bank, Maruti, Sun Pharma and TCS fell up to 2.87%.

“Domestic equities shrugged off rising COVID-19 cases and rebounded mainly led by a sharp recovery in financials,” said Binod Modi, Head Strategy at Reliance Securities.

Barring Nifty Pharma where investors booked profits all other sectoral indices ended in the green. Nifty Realty index leads the pack with gains of 3.4%, followed by the Nifty Metal index surging 2%, and Nifty Bank soaring 1.74%. Nifty Auto, Nifty FMCG and Nifty IT rose anywhere between 0.25-0.50%.

Market breadth favoured the bull as 1,239 shares advanced versus 660 stocks declining while 394 scrips remained unchanged. On the other hand, the broader market underperformed benchmark indices as BSE MidCap & BSE SmallCap indices were up 0.60% and 0.88% respectively.