The Sensex and the Nifty rose for a second consecutive session on Monday, boosted by buying in index heavyweights, such as Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, and Axis Bank. Auto stocks led by Mahindra & Mahindra extended gains following strong May sales.
The benchmark Sensex rose 240 points, or 0.4 per cent, to end the session at 62,787; the Nifty gained 60 points, or 0.32 per cent, to finish at 18,594. The 30-share Sensex is now 497 points, or 0.78 per cent, away from its all-time closing high of 63,284 made on December 1.
The unemployment rate surge in the US was the biggest one-month increase since April 2020.
The Brent crude rose 1.3 per cent and was trading at $77.12 per barrel (8.50 pm IST) after Saudi Arabia pledged to cut supply. The kingdom’s output will decline to 9 million barrels per day from around 10 million barrels in May, Saudi’s energy ministry said in a statement. It planned further voluntary output cuts which will be implemented from July.
The market breadth was strong, with 2,128 stocks gaining and 1,543 declining. Half of the Sensex stocks gained. According to provisional data from exchanges, foreign portfolio investors were net sellers to the tune of Rs 701 crore but domestic institutional investors net bought shares worth nearly Rs 1,200 crore.
“Traders should continue with a stock-specific trading approach and utilise intermediate dips or pauses to accumulate quality stocks. Apart from the key sectors, one can selectively look at mid-caps and small-caps, citing their prevailing outperformance,” said Ajit Mishra, SVP-Technical Research, Religare Broking.