The Indian benchmark equity indices, Sensex and Nifty ended higher Monday led by gains in metals, auto and IT stocks.

Share Market Live

NSE

The Sensex ended 173.44 points or 0.46 percent higher at 38,050.78 while the Nifty gained 68.70 points or 0.61 percent to close at 11,247.10. Broader indices participated in the rally with Nifty Smallcap100 and Nifty Midcap100 indices gaining 0.89 and 0.51 percent, respectively.

Gains in index heavyweights such as Bajaj Finance, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto, Kotak Mahindra Bank among others lifted Nifty to end near 11,250 levels.

Among sectors, Nifty Auto, Nifty Metal and Nifty Media rallied the most over 2 percent each while Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Pharma ended in the red.

NTPC, Eicher Motors, ZEEL, Hindalco Industries and Bajaj Auto led gains among Nifty constituents while SBI, Bharti Airtel, BPCL, Reliance Industries and Tata Motors were the top index losers.

"The markets were successful in holding the 11,150 level on closing which is a positive sign as those are strong supports for the market. We need to still see if we can get past 11,350 on a closing basis this week. If that happens we can move up higher towards 11,500," said Manish Hathiramani, Index Trader and Technical Analyst, Deen Dayal Investments.

Shares of telecom companies such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, and Vodafone Idea declined ahead of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues case hearing in the Supreme Court.

The share price of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals ended over 1 percent higher after the company's consolidated net profit more than doubled to Rs 254.04 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2020. The pharmaceutical giant, in the same period last year, had reported a net profit of Rs 109.28 crore.

Globally, shares crept back toward recent peaks on Monday as Chinese markets swung higher, while investors waited to see if the recent sell-off in longer-dated US Treasuries would be extended and perhaps take some pressure off the dollar, Reuters reported.

Europe was warming up to the new week slowly but was steady enough to keep MSCI's broadest index of world shares inching closer to February's record top of 581.02.

First Published:Aug 17, 2020 3:37 PM IST