Sensex logs 5th straight gains; soars 307 points

Equity benchmark Sensex continued its winning streak for a fifth straight session Monday, surging over 307 points with gains mainly in auto, metal and financial stocks as investors maintained their bullish stance in view of strengthening rupee, narrowing trade deficit and sustained foreign fund inflows. 

Besides, market participants took cues from stronger Asian markets. 

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 36,270, showing a rise of 0.85 per cent or 307 points. In the intra-day trade, the gauge hit a high of 36,312.

The Sensex had climbed 1,003.21 points in the previous four sessions.

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty ended at 10,888, a gain of 0.77 per cent or 83 points, after shuttling between 10,900.35 and 10,844.85. 

On a net basis, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 861.94 crore Friday, while DIIs sold equities to the tune of Rs 303.52 crore, provisional data showed.

The Indian rupee was trading 37 paise higher at 71.53 against the US dollar, tracking positive domestic macro-economic data. 

India's trade deficit stood at USD 15.1 billion for November 2017 as against USD 17.13 billion in the previous month.

Analysts attributed the market performance to stabilisation of crude and rupee and also highlighted improved domestic macros' importance in providing a positive momentum to the market. Among Sensex constituents, Tata Motors emerged as the best performer by surging 4.10 per cent, followed by PowerGrid at 3.77 per cent.

Vedanta Ltd shares climbed as much as 2.21 per cent after the NGT set aside the Tamil Nadu government order for closure of the company's copper plant at Tuticorin, saying it was "non sustainable" and "unjustified".

Other index gainers include HDFC (2.89 per cent), Wipro (2.01 per cent), Tata Steel (1.88 per cent), Coal India (1.88 per cent), HDFC Bank (1.75 per cent), IndusInd Bank (1.71 per cent), RIL (1.70 per cent),

ICICI Bank (1.68 per cent), NTPC (1.67 per cent), ITC Ltd (1.61 per cent), ONGC (0.95 per cent), Maruti Suzuki (0.71 per cent) and Bajaj Auto (0.55 per cent).

Adani Ports, Yes Bank, M&M, TCS and Sun Pharma too were in fine shape and rose up to 0.50 per cent.

Bucking the overall trend, Kotak Bank, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Hero MotoCorp, HUL, Asian Paint, Axis bank, L&T and SBI fell up to 2.50 per cent.

Sectorally, the BSE metal index moved up 2.03 per cent, followed by energy index 1.54 per cent, oil and gas 1.34 per cent, power 1.31 per cent, infrastrcuture 1.14 per cent, PSU 1.13 per cent, FMCG 0.93 per cent and bankex 0.56 per cent.

However, capital goods, consumer durables, realty and teck indices ended lower by up to 0.27 per cent. 

Overseas, Asian markets ended higher with Japan's Nikkei rising 0.62 per cent, followed by Shanghai Composite Index 0.16 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng 0.02 per cent, Taiwan index 0.14 per cent and Korea KOSPI 0.08 per cent.

However, European shares were lower in late morning deals. Paris CAC 40 fell 0.40 per cent, Frankfurt DAX was down 0.03 per cent and London's FTSE dropped 0.18 per cent.