The stock market opened on a positive note on Monday, the start of the week. The Nifty crossed 15,000-mark. Midcap and smallcap indices supported the upside momentum. Gains were seen in IT, realty, pharma and auto indices.
At 09:16 IST, the Sensex was up 232.01 points or 0.46 percent at 50772.49. The Nifty was up 43.40 points or 0.29 percent at 15218.70.
PowerGrid was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, advancing over 2 per cent, followed by SBI, L&T, HDFC Bank, Maruti, Axis Bank and Dr Reddy’s.
On the other hand, Titan, M&M, IndusInd Bank and HUL were among the losers.
In the previous session, Sensex soared 975.62 points or 1.97 percent to finish at 50,540.48, and Nifty soared 269.25 points or 1.81 percent to close at 15,175.30.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 510.16 crore on Friday, as per provisional exchange data.
Markets finally ended a two-month-long consolidation phase and gained over 3 percent last week. Signs of COVID cases peaking out combined with favourable global cues lifted sentiment, said Ajit Mishra, VP Research at Religare Broking.
“We expect volatility to remain high next week due to the scheduled derivatives expiry of May month contracts. Besides, participants will be closely eyeing the COVID-related updates as the reduction in the cases has raised hopes of gradual unlocking by the states,” he added.
Asian shares trade cautious
In Asia, bourses in Shanghai and Tokyo were trading on a positive note in mid-session deals, while Hong Kong and Seoul were in the red.
Nasdaq futures were flat and S&P 500 futures firmed 0.2 percent. EUROSTOXX 50 futures and FTSE futures added 0.1 percent.
International oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.65 percent higher at $66.78 per barrel.
Petrol, diesel prices unchanged
On Monday, Oil marketing companies (OMCs) on Monday kept petrol and diesel prices unchanged across the country.
In Mumbai, petrol and diesel were sold at Rs 99.49 and Rs 91.30 per litre, respectively. Chennai, petrol is priced at Rs 94.86 per litre while the price of diesel is Rs 88.87 per litre. The price of petrol in Kolkata is Rs 93.27 per litre while diesel is sold at Rs 86.91 per litre.
On Sunday, petrol price was hiked by 17 paise per litre and diesel by 29 paise a litre. The hike - 12th this month - pushed petrol and diesel prices to an all-time high across the country.
