Tracking positive global cues, domestic equity benchmarks gained up to 0.68% on Monday as the announcement of an interim India–US trade deal over the weekend, along with a sharp rally in State Bank of India(SBI) shares following the bank’s record net profit of Rs 21,028 crore in the December quarter, boosted investor sentiment on Monday.
The country’s largest public sector lender alone contributed 280 points, or 58%, to the Sensex’s 485-point gain.
Starting the week on a strong note, the Sensex climbed 485.35 points, or 0.58%, to close at a one-month high of 84,065.75, while the Nifty surged 173.60 points, or 0.68%, to end the session at 25,867.30.
What do researchers say?
“Investor sentiment was lifted by reports that India and the United States have moved closer to a trade agreement that includes tariff reductions and deeper economic cooperation. This development helped remove a key overhang that had been weighing on markets and triggered fresh buying across sectors,” said Ajit Mishra, SVP – Research, Religare Broking.
Mixed global cues, along with supportive moves in Asian markets, further reinforced the positive undertone, Mishra added.
“Investors are closely tracking corporate earnings, with PSU banks delivering stronger-than-anticipated performance, which helped the PSU Bank index outperform,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments.
The recovery was broad-based, with sectors such as cement, capital goods, textiles and consumer discretionary attracting investor interest, supported by Union Budget proposals and favourable trade developments, Nair added.
Market activity
Broader indices BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap surged 1.64% and 2.52% respectively, significantly outperforming the benchmarks. The broad-based rally resulted in investor wealth rising by Rs 6.03 lakh crore to Rs 473.35 lakh crore. Market breadth was firmly positive, with 3,110 gainers against 1,254 losers on the BSE.
Foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth Rs 2,254.64 crore, while domestic institutional investors were marginal buyers at Rs 4.15 crore, as per provisional BSE data. FPIs have now turned buyers in four of the seven trading sessions in February so far.
Across Asia, markets in South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan and Hong Kong were the top gainers, rising by up to 4.10%, while the Philippines was the lone laggard, down 0.65%.
Barring utilities, all sectoral indices on the BSE and NSE ended in the green. PSU banks, consumer durables, realty, commodities and industrials were the top sectoral gainers, rising by up to 2.83%.
SBI jumped 7.5%—its biggest single-day gain in eight months—to emerge as the top gainer among both Sensex and Nifty stocks. Titan Company, Tata Steel, UltraTech Cement and Eternal were the other top Sensex performers, gaining up to 2.78%.