Fresh buying in information technology (IT) stocks and sustained buying for foreign institutional investors (FII) helped the benchmark Sensex surge by 141.43 points. Snapping the two-day losing streak, Sensex rose as investors and FIIs again started buying in IT stocks as all the major companies including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Wipro posted strong quarterly results. While the stock markets rose, rupee fell by eight paise to close the day at Rs61.62 per dollar.
Sensex ended the session near its month high at 21,205.05 as stock prices of TCS and Wipro sky rocketed by 5.53 per cent and 3.77 per cent respectively. In the previous two sessions, Sensex had lost 225.87 points.
Nifty also rose by 42.30 points to end the day at to 6,303.95. Of the 30 Sensex shares, 16 ended the session with gains. While on Nifty, of the 50 stocks comprising the index, 29 shares rose. On the other hand, in a dull and listless trade, rupee depreciated due to rise in demand for the US currency from importers.
As per forex experts, sustained capital inflows, a slightly weak dollar in the overseas markets and recovery in local equities restricted the rupee fall. The dollar index was also down by 0.05 per cent against a basket of six major global rivals.
Meanwhile, FIIs also continued with their buying in Indian equities. As per the provisional data provided by the stock exchanges, FIIs bought shares worth Rs384.89 crore on Monday. Of the 12 sectoral indices trading on BSE, only oil & gas index fell by 0.96 per cent primarily due to the profit booking in the Reliance Industry’s share which was the biggest loser on Sensex as it fell by 1.7 per cent.
The market rally was led by IT and technology indices as they surged by 2.83 per cent and 2.5 per cent respectively. FMCG index also saw fresh buying and rose by 1.08 per cent along with interest sensitive sectors including bank, automobile and real estate indices, all of which gained by over 0.7 per cent.
Despite all major IT stocks registered heavy gains, Infosys was only able to end the session with minor rise of 0.59 per cent. While on the other hand, ITC once again surpassed Infosys to become the most influential stock on the Sensex. As per the stock exchange, ITC is now the top holding in 30-share Sensex, followed by Infosys. IT major Infosys last week had taken the top spot pushing ITC to the second position.