Indian equity benchmarks began the trading week in the green led by gains in financial, oil & gas, auto and metal shares. Auto stocks jumped as manufacturers started to report their monthly sales numbers. The focus on Dalal Street also shifted to a key rate decision by the RBI due this week.

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NSE

Both headline indices rose as much as 0.6 percent in the first few minutes of trade.

The Sensex gained 323 points to touch 57,893.2 at the strongest level of the day so far, and the Nifty50 climbed to as high as 17,266.5, up 108.2 points from its previous close.

As many as 41 stocks in the Nifty50 basket opened higher. Tata Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra, UPL, Cipla, Dr Reddy's, Hindalco, Bajaj Finserv, Tech Mahindra and Infosys — rising around 1-3 percent each — were among the top gainers.

On the other hand, Sun Pharma and IndusInd — down 0.3 percent each — were among the few blue-chip laggards.

Reliance Industries, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra and Bharti Airtel were the biggest contributors to the gain in both main indices.

"The big positive for the Indian market are the FPIs turning buyers in July after nine months of relentless selling... At 17,150 Nifty valuations are again moving to the higher side, where investors have to exercise caution," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Auto shares were in the spotlight on the Street after Bajaj Auto reported a nine percent increase in domestic sales last month.

The Nifty Auto — which tracks the performance of 15 stocks including Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor — jumped as much as 3.3 percent.

ITC shares rose by as much as Rs 4.8 or 1.6 percent to Rs 307.7 apiece on BSE. The cigarettes-to-hotels conglomerate will report its financial results for the April-June period later in the day.

Overall market breadth was strongly in favour of the bulls, as 2,152 stocks rose and 982 fell on BSE in morning deals.

Global markets

Equities in other Asian markets were a mixed bag on Monday, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan down 0.4 percent at the last count. Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 0.4 percent but China's Shanghai Composite down 0.3 percent.

S&P 500 futures were down 0.4 percent, suggesting a weak start ahead on Wall Street. On Friday, the three main US indices jumped 1-2 percent each.

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