Equity benchmark Sensex rallied 936 points on Monday, helped by heavy buying in banking and IT counters along with the decline in oil prices amid hopes of headway in renewed diplomatic talks between Russia and Ukraine.

A fresh round of talks is expected on Monday between Ukrainian and Russian officials.

Rising for the fifth straight session, the BSE Sensex jumped 935.72 points or 1.68 per cent to settle at 56,486.02. During the day, it rallied 995.53 points or 1.79 per cent to 56,545.83.

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty climbed 240.85 points or 1.45 per cent to settle at 16,871.30.

In the 30-share Sensex pack, Infosys, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Maruti Suzuki India, HDFC and Wipro were among the major gainers, jumping up to 3.76 per cent.

In contrast, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Tata Steel were the laggards.

Bourses in Hong Kong and Shanghai settled sharply lower, while Tokyo was marginally higher.

Stock exchanges in the US settled lower on Friday.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 2.97 per cent to USD 109.3 a barrel.

Foreign institutional investors continued their selling spree in Indian markets as they offloaded shares worth Rs 2,263.90 crore on a net basis on Friday, according to exchange data.

Meanwhile, the wholesale price-based inflation in February rose to 13.11 per cent on hardening of prices of crude oil and non-food items, even though food articles softened.

V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said, "The most important event this week from the market perspective would be the outcome of the Fed meet expected on Wednesday." PTI SUM SUM

ABM