Banking, financial stocks lift indices up 1%, HDFC Bank gains 3.5%

Equity benchmark indices rose by nearly one per cent during early hours on Monday with heavy buying seen across banking and financial counters.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 375 points or 1.04 per cent at 36,396 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 130 points or 1.23 per cent at 10,737.

Nifty pharma slipped by 0.6 per cent but all other sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty private bank gaining by 1.8 per cent, PSU bank by 1.4 per cent, finance service by 1.7 per cent and IT by 1 per cent.

Among stocks, HDFC Bank ticked up by 3.51 per cent to Rs 1,111.65 per share after the bank reported strong loan growth in the first quarter of the current financial year.

IndusInd Bank gained by 2.6 per cent and State Bank of India by 2 per cent while Bajaj Finance moved higher by 1.8 per cent. Mahindra & Mahindra was up by 3.1 per cent, Grasim by 2.1 per cent and ITC by 1.7 per cent. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries looked up by 1.6 per cent to Rs 1,815.45 per share.

However, those which lost were Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, Titan and Hindustan Lever.

Meanwhile, Asian markets were in the positive zone as most economies reported better than expected near term normalcy in a rebound of economic activity.

Investors counted on cheap liquidity and fiscal stimulus to sustain the global economic recovery even as surging coronavirus cases delayed re-openings across the United States.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan climbed by 1 per cent to its highest since February. Chinese blue chips jumped by 3 per cent while Japan's Nikkei managed a rise of 1.3 per cent. 

-ANI

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