India’s stock markets followed their global counterparts on Monday. Key indices moved in tandem with the Asian markets that rallied on the back of advances in the US markets on Friday.
Having opened 253.45 points higher than the previous session’s closing, the Sensex of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) posted gains for the second consecutive trading day. The 30-share index gained 417.74 points, or 2.29%, before closing at 18,660.32.
The broader S&P CNX Nifty ended at 5,468 points, gaining of 146.25 points, or 2.75%. The Sensex and Nifty gained over 1,000 points and 325 points, respectively, in the last two trading sessions.
The US markets ended on a positive note on Friday reacting to a rise in manufacturing in the last month, easing out chances of the US economy slipping into recession.
The advances in the US markets helped other Asian markets post good returns on Monday with Chinas Shanghai composite leading the way, gaining 351.40 points, or 8.13%, before closing at 4,672.17 points.
This was followed by Hong Kong?s Hang Seng which rallied 908 .50 points, or 3.77%, to close at 25,032.08 points.
Apurva Shah, head of research at Prabhudas Lilladher, said, ?Foreign institutional investors are not coming to their fullest and if we want to see this rally to sustain we need to have steady flows from them. We are depending on global factors and any uncertainty in the international markets will have repercussions in the Indian markets too.?
A section of the market feels that volatility is to remain in view of the forthcoming Union budget. Across-the-board buying helped restore volumes on the stock exchanges which had dipped since the meltdown on January 22.
The overall market breadth remained positive at the BSE with 2,274 stocks advancing as against 533 stocks declining and 37 stocks remaining unchanged.
Realty and information technology (IT) stocks posted maximum gains with BSE Realty gaining 644.13 points, or 6.53%, to close at 10,513.46 points while the BSE IT index added 163.34 points,or 4.15%, to close at 4,097.61 points.
Sustained buying was witnessed in the metal, technology and PSU companies with their respective indices moving in a range of 3% to 4%.
According to the provisional figures from the stock exchanges (SE), foreign Institutional Investors were marginally net buyers to the tune of Rs 163.74 crore while the domestic Institutional Investors were net buyers of Rs 731.83 crore.
