Sensex recoups early loss, ends on positive note

Holiday-thinned Year-end Trading

- Mkts opened in negative mode

- Picked up from afternoon

- Gains in IT, financials and pharma stocks

- BSE Sensex gained 295.93 pts to 57,420.24

- NSE Nifty recovered 82.50 pts to 17,086.25

- Tech Mahindra top gainer in Sensex pack

- Dr Reddy's, PowerGrid, Kotak Bank, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, M&M and HDFC twins moved up

- IndusInd Bank, Asian Paints, Maruti and Airtel among laggards

Mumbai: Equity benchmark Sensex rose by nearly 296 points on Monday following gains in IT, financials and pharma stocks amid a largely positive trend in global markets.

After rebounding over 960 points from the day's low during the session, the 30-share index settled 295.93 points or 0.52 per cent higher at 57,420.24. As many as 24 Sensex stocks closed in the green, while six declined. The broad-based NSE Nifty recovered 82.50 points or 0.49 per cent to close at 17,086.25 with 40 of its constituents advancing.

"Indian markets opened in red tracking mixed Asian market cues as investors tracked the impact of Omicron variant amid holiday-thinned trade. During the afternoon session, the markets swung back to green showing a steady trade with the recovery supported by healthcare, industrials, and capital goods stocks. Traders were encouraged as a member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank expressed hope that in a few quarters from now, capital investment would begin to pick up even in the old economy, and said the next fiscal year is also expected to witness a decent growth," said Narendra Solanki, head (equity research-fundamental), Anand Rathi.

"Despite rising Covid cases globally, the domestic market took a rebound post its weak opening factoring the low mortality rate of the new variant. Gains in pharma, IT and finance were the major sectorial contributors to the market recovery," Vinod Nair, head (research) at Geojit Financial Services, said.