The bulls kept roaring in the first day of a new week on Dalal Street. The Sensex opened 241.58 points up or 0.42 percent at 58,371.53 points. The broader Nifty50 was up 70.40 points or 0.41 percent at 17,394.

Reliance Industries shares have hits fresh record high at 3 percent. The acquisition by Reliance Strategic Business Ventures Ltd (RSBVL) is part of Reliance's digital health intiatives, the Mukesh Ambani firm said in a stock exchange filing.

Among the early gainers at the stock market were Reliance Industries which was up 2.44 percent at Rs 2,446.45, Larsen and Toubro (+1.20 percent) at Rs 1,706.75, Mahindra and Mahindra (+1.05 percent) at Rs 757.95, Bajaj Auto (+0.98 percent) at Rs 3,788.90, and Hindustan Unilever (+0.90 percent) at Rs 2,791.10.

Among the early losers were Asian Paints (-0.71 percent) at Rs 3,315.20, Tata Steel (-0.56 percent) at Rs 1,435.05, Power Grid (-0.14 percent) at rs 175.25, Nestle Industries (-0.12 percent) at Rs 20,235.40, and Titan (-0.12 percent) at Rs 2,016.40.

Fuel rates unchanged

The oil marketing companies (OMCs) have kept petrol and diesel prices unchanged on Monday, a day after reducing them by 15 paise per litre.

Accordingly, the price of petrol and diesel remains unchanged at Rs 101.19 and Rs 88.62 per litre in Delhi, as per Indian Oil Corporation, the country's largest fuel retailer.

Across the country as well the petrol and diesel prices remained static on Monday but their retail rates varied depending on the level of local taxes in a particular state.

In Mumbai, the petrol price is stable at Rs 107.26 per litre on Thursday while diesel rates also remain unchanged at Rs 96.19 a litre.

In Chennai, petrol is priced at Rs 98.96 a litre and in Kolkata Rs 101.62 a litre. Diesel is also priced at Rs 93.26 and Rs 91.71 per litre in both cities respectively.

Asian shares get off to a mixed start

Asian shares got off to a mixed start on Monday as a disappointing U.S. payrolls report promised to keep policy there super-loose for longer, but also clouded the outlook for global growth and inflation.

Japan’s Nikkei added 1.7 percent, but South Korea eased 0.1 percent. Nasdaq futures were barely changed, while S&P 500 futures dipped 0.1 percent.

The ongoing rally in Japan sparked by the planned exit of the prime minister impacted share movement as traders assessed the challenges for reopening underscored by slower US hiring. A disappointing US payrolls report promised to keep policy there super-loose for longer, but also clouded the outlook for global growth and inflation.

In China, officials pledged to tighten supervision in the financial services industry, highlighting the risk of further turbulence from a regulatory onslaught on the private sector. China lifted its official yuan midpoint to an over 2-1/2-month high on Monday to reflect broad weakness in the dollar.

US markets are closed on Monday for the Labor Day holiday.

Oil extends losses

Oil extended losses at the open after Saudi Arabia slashed crude prices for Asian buyers by a larger-than-expected margin just days after OPEC+ agreed to continue raising production.

Futures in New York edged below $69 a barrel after falling 1percent on Friday. The October price for Saudi’s flagship crude was cut by $1.30, more than double the forecast reduction. Traders were surprised by the move, attributing it to factors including arbitrage inflows and competition to retain market share.

Forex soars to touch lifetime high

The country’s foreign exchange reserves soared by $16.663 billion to touch a lifetime high of $633.558 billion in the week ended August 27, mainly due to an increase in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) holdings, RBI data showed.

In the reporting week ended August 27, 2021, the country’s SDR holdings rose by $17.866 billion to $19.407 billion, as per weekly data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday.

Excise on petroleum products jump 48%

The government's collections from levy of excise duty on petroleum products have jumped 48 percent in the first four months of the current fiscal year, with the incremental mop-up being 3-times of the repayment liability of legacy oil bonds in the full fiscal, official data showed.

Data available from the Controller General of Accounts in the Union Ministry of Finance showed excise duty collections during April-July 2021 surging to over Rs 1 lakh crore, from Rs 67,895 crore mop-up in the same period of the previous fiscal.

After the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, excise duty is levied only on petrol, diesel, ATF and natural gas. Barring these products, all other goods and services are under the GST regime.

FPIs net buyers in August

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were net buyers to the tune of Rs 16,459 crore in Indian markets in August, with majority of investment coming in the debt segment. In equities, they invested just Rs 2,082.94 crore while debt segment saw inflow of Rs 14,376.2 crore between August 2-31, depositories data showed.

Gold advances over 10%

Gold advanced more than 1 percent to its highest in 2-1/2 months on Friday, as a slower-than-expected USjobs growth in August drove the dollar lower, casting doubts on the Federal Reserve's tapering timeline.

ECB meeting this week

The European Central Bank meets this week amid calls from several hawkish members to slow its pandemic-era asset purchase program. A Reuters poll sees the bank announcing a cut to its asset purchases, given a recent spike in inflation.

Emerging market currencies hit 11-week highs on Friday after a sharp slowdown in US jobs growth signaled the Federal Reserve may not rush to taper stimulus

F&O ban

Indiabulls Housing Finance is under the F&O ban today.