Sensex gains 240 points, breaches 35,000 mark on slump in crude prices; Sun Pharma top gainer

The Sensex and Nifty rallied for a third straight session on Monday, with the 30-share index closing above the 35,000-mark as sentiments improved after a sharp correction in global crude prices and a continuous recovery in the rupee. The broader 50-share Nifty breached the psychological 10,700-level.

The Sensex settled at 35,165, up 240.61 points, while the broader Nifty50 ended at 10,688, up 83.50 points. In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and the BSE Smallcap indices gained 1.4 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively.

Market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, remained positive. On the BSE, 1,843 stocks rallied, 842 stocks declined, while 175 stocks remained unchanged.

"The Nifty zoomed ahead for the third day running with a gain of 84 points or 0.80 per cent. With this gain, the Nifty has risen 259 points on the trot in the last three sessions. This is the largest rise registered by the Nifty in absolute terms in 6 months. Crude Oil and The US Dollar were the drivers of the markets yet again. Crude oil fell 1.7 per cent in Asian trade. This was over and above the 4 per cent slide seen on Friday in the US markets. The Rupee appreciated 36 paise against the Dollar at 67.41 at the time when the equity markets downed their shutters at 3.30 pm," said VK Sharma, Head Private Client Group & Capital Market Strategy at HDFC Securities.

"As expected Airlines and OMCs has a field day. Spice Jet was on the upper circuit of 20%. HPCL and BPCL were the 2nd and the 3rd largest gainers in the Nifty, with the top rung going to Sun Pharma, which rose 7% after the overnight results," he added.

The major gainers on the Sensex were Sun Pharma, Coal India, Asian Paints, Larsen and Toubro and Hero MotoCorp while Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Power Grid, Infosys, Mahindra and Mahindra and Bharti Airtel were the major losers.

On the Nifty, the top gainers were Sun Pharma, Hindustan Petroleum and BPCL. The major losers were Tech Mahindra, Power Grid and TCS.

Among the sectors, the PSU Banks, Pharma and Realty sectors rose 2.7 per cent, 2.4 per cent and 1.5 per cent, respectively. IT sector was the loan losing sector.

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Overseas, Asian markets traded firm as geopolitical worries eased after the US and North Korean officials met to resume preparations for a summit between the leaders of the two countries. The US Markets are closed today for the Memorial Day Holiday.

On Friday, Brent sank 3 per cent and WTI fell 4 per cent, and in early Asia business they were both down a further 2 per cent.

Meanwhile, DIIs bought shares worth a net of Rs 887.76 crore on Friday, while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 768.29 crore, provisional data showed.