The Indian equity benchmarks extended gains in noon trading on Monday led by gains in Infosys, HDFC Bank, SBI, Axis Bank, and Wipro. The Sensex rose as much as 578 points and the Nifty 50 index surpassed its important level of 16,700. Drop in oil prices in international markets led to an uptick in Indian markets today, analysts said. With today's gain markets are looking forward to ending higher for the fifth session in a row.
At 11:49 am, the Sensex was up as much as 421 points at 56,078 and Nifty 50 advanced 121 points or 0.73 per cent at 16,752.
The global oil benchmark, Brent Crude futures fell 1.91 per cent to $110.52 per barrel. Moreover, the rupee slumped 18 paise to 76.62 against the US Dollar.
In the domestic market, eight of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Realty index's 1.84 per cent decline. Nifty Auto, Metal, FMCG, Oil & Gas and Consumer Durable indices were also trading lower.
On the other hand, Bank, Financial Services, IT, and Media stocks were witnessing buying interest.
Mid-cap and small-cap shares were trading mixed as Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 0.5 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 100 index was trading on a flat note.
Among the individual shares, Shares of One97 Communications, the parent of financial technology firm Paytm, plunged as much as 13.25 per cent to hit record low of Rs 672 after the Reserve Bank of India directed the Paytm Payments Bank to stop onboarding of new customers and directed the firm to appoint an IT audit firm to conduct a comprehensive System Audit of its IT system.
Shares of parent of Domino's franchise operator in India, Jubilant FoodWorks, fell as much as 15 per cent to hit fresh 52-week low of Rs 2,444 after its Chief Executive Officer Pratik Rashmikant Pota resigned from the company.
Amongst the Nifty 50 Index companies at the National Stock Exchange, Infosys, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Wipro and SBI were the top gainers, whereas Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) were the top loser with its stocks falling 2.67 per cent at Rs 120. Apart from IOC, Tata Motors, ONGC, BPCL and Hindustan Unilever Limited were also the top losers.
