Benchmark gauges Sensex and Nifty on Monday pulled back from the day's highs but managed to settle with marginal gains as investors rushed to book profits following a stellar rally.
The 30-share BSE Sensex surged over 640 points in early trade mirroring bullish sentiments in global markets in the wake of surprisingly strong US jobs data, but an intense volatility gripped the index as the session progressed.
After fighting bouts of volatility during the day, the Sensex ended 83.34 points, or 0.24 per cent, higher at 34370.58. The NSE Nifty closed 25.30 points, or 0.25 per cent, up at 10167.45.
On the Sensex chart, IndusInd Bank was the top gainer, soaring around 7 per cent, followed by Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, ONGC, Titan, Infosys and Tech Mahindra.
Among the top losers were: Mahindra and Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, HDFC Bank, Tata Steel and Nestle India.
Shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) jumped around 3 per cent during the day, hitting a one-year peak, after the company sold a 1.16 per cent stake in its digital unit Jio Platforms to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority for Rs 5,683.50 crore. Its shares, however, closed 0.51 per cent lower as investors cashed in on recent gains.
Sectorally, BSE oil and gas, IT, industrials, consumer durables, utilities, bankex and finance indices surged up to 2.79 per cent, while basic materials, healthcare, metal and auto fell up to 0.90 per cent.
“Domestic markets succumbed to profit-booking after opening higher mirroring firm cues from other global markets after a surprise surge in US employment fanned optimism over the economic recovery from coronavirus pandemic,” said Paras Bothra, president of equity research, Ashika Stock Broking.
Sajjan plea
Industrialist Sajjan Jindal on Monday pitched for restarting the economy and said that saving lives is as important as saving livelihoods.
“The Covid-19 crisis brought the world to a stop! We paused to save lives but now we need to start again to save livelihoods,” the chairman of diversified JSW Group said in a statement.
He further said the economic implications of the lockdown can be severe and opening of business activities is crucial for India to achieve its aim of becoming a successful economy. “Global economies are opening up. Staying at home till a cure is found will make the loss of livelihoods as severe as the loss of lives in India,” he said.
MF inflows
Inflows into equity mutual funds dropped to a five-month low of Rs 5,256 crore in May amid uncertain economic environment due to coronavirus pandemic.
Overall, the mutual fund industry witnessed a net inflow of Rs 70,813 crore across all segments, last month data by Association of Mutual Funds in India showed on Friday.
