The stock markets opened in green on Monday, the start of a new week, led by Nifty Metal index which was up 2.9 percent. The Nifty rose above 14,900 on the back of positive global cues.
At 09:16 IST, the Sensex was up 289.24 points or 0.59 percent at 49495.71, and the Nifty was up 98.80 points or 0.67 percent at 14922.
Dr Reddy’s was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising over 2 percent, followed by ONGC, HDFC, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma and Kotak Bank.
On the other hand, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finance, Nestle India and Infosys were among the laggards.
In the previous session, Sensex climbed 256.71 points or 0.52 percent to finish at 49,206.47, and Nifty rose 98.35 points or 0.67 percent to 14,823.15.
A total of 22 firms, including Chambal Ferilizers & chemicals, Escorts Finance, HSIL, Intellect Design Arena, Venky's, JMC Projects, and Zydus Wellness will announce their quarterly numbers today.
Asian stock trade higher
Asian peers were seen trading higher in the early trade on Monday, with Japan’s Nikkei, Topix and South Korea’s Kospi up one percent, each, while Hong Kong was in the red.
Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.44 percent higher at $68.58 per barre
Petrol, diesel prices up
After a two-day break, petrol and diesel prices in the country were hiked again by state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) on Monday. On Monday, petrol price was hiked by a steep 26 paise per litre and diesel by 33 paise a litre, according to a price notification by state-owned fuel retailers.
After today’s hike, petrol prices in Delhi rose to Rs 91.53 per litre against Rs 91.27 on Sunday, while diesel price soared to Rs 82.06 per litre as compared to Rs 81.73 a litre on Sunday.
Rates have been increased across the country and differ from state to state depending on the incidence of value-added tax.
In Mumbai, the price of petrol and diesel stood at Rs 97.86 and Rs 89.17 per litre respectively.
The price of petrol and diesel in Chennai was Rs 93.38 and Rs 86.96 per litre respectively and Rs 91.66 and Rs 84.90 per litre in Kolkata.
After raising petrol price by a record Rs 21.58 per litre and diesel by Rs 19.18 since the government raised excise duty to an all-time high in March last year, state-owned fuel retailers -- IOC, BPCL and HPCL -- had reduced petrol price by 67 paise a litre and diesel by 74 paise per litre effected between March 24 and April 15.
FPIs withdraw Rs 5,936 cr from equities in May
Foreign investors have pulled out Rs 5,936 crore from the Indian equities in the first week of May amid worries over the intense second wave of coronavirus infection and its fallout on the economy.
Foreign investors had pulled out Rs 9,659 crore in April after infusing money in the preceding six months, according to the depositories'' data.
If fears of COVID-19 persist among overseas investors, then further redemptions cannot be ruled out, Himanshu Srivastava, Associate Director - Manager Research, Morningstar India, stated.
According to the data, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) withdrew a net sum of Rs 5,936 crore from Indian equity markets during May 3-7.
Prior to April's outflow, FPIs had been infusing money in equities since October. They invested over Rs 1.97 lakh crore in equities during October 2020 to March 2021. This included a net investment of Rs 55,741 crore in the first three months of this year.
"The nervousness among FPIs with regards to the second wave of coronavirus pandemic in India was visible in the flow numbers for this week," Srivastava said.
