Sensex rises over 100 points, Nifty trades near 17,650; Tata Motors, CreditAccess Grameen, Adani Green jump up to 8%

Indian equity benchmarks rose in early trade on Monday, led by gains in automobile, metal, consumer durables and energy stocks. The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 119 points or 0.20 per cent to 59,952, while the broader NSE Nifty moved 47 points or 0.27 per cent higher to trade at 17,647. Mid- and small-cap shares were up as Nifty Midcap 100 edged 0.10 per cent higher and small-cap gained 0.21 per cent.

"The hawkish pause delivered by the MPC against the market expectation of a dovish hike indicates that the central bank is prioritising growth now. If the economy achieves GDP growth of 6.50 per cent and CPI inflation of 5.20 per cent in FY 24 in tune with the MPC's expectations, that would be a huge positive from the market perspective," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

"IT companies are expected to deliver soft Q4 numbers. So, the guidance by the leading players will be keenly watched by the market," he added.

On the global front, Asian shares, Japan's Nikkei and South Korea's KOSPI, were up. Australian, Hong Kong and European markets are closed for Easter.

Back home, 12 out of the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the National Stock Exchange -- were trading in the green. Sub-indexes Nifty Auto, Nifty Metal, Nifty Consumer Durables, and Nifty Oil & Gas were outperforming the NSE platform by rising as much as 0.86 per cent, 0.70 per cent, 0.49 per cent and 0.46 per cent, respectively.

On the stock-specific front, Tata Motors was the top Nifty gainer as the stock jumped 7.44 per cent to Rs 470.20. Titan, L&T, Adani Enterprises and ONGC rose up to 1.68 per cent.

Three Adani Group stocks were locked in upper circuits. Adani Green Energy, Adani Transmission and Adani Total Gas were up 5 per cent, each, in early deals today. Also, CreditAccess Grameen jumped 7.58 per cent.

In contrast, Asian Paints, Maruti, Britannia, Bajaj Finance and IndusInd Bank slipped up to 1.77 per cent.

The overall market breadth was strong as 1,738 shares were advancing while 1,034 were declining on BSE.

On the 30-share BSE index, Tata Motors, Titan, L&T, M&M, NTPC, Wipro, Tata Steel, PowerGrid, ICICI Bank, TCS, HCL Tech and Infosys were among the top gainers.

On the flip side, Asian Paints, Maruti, Bajaj Finance, HUL, HDFC twins (HDFC and HDFC Bank), ITC, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv and SBI were trading in the red.

Sensex had settled 144 points or 0.24 per cent higher at 59,833 in the previous session, while Nifty had moved 42 points or 0.24 per cent up to close at 17,599.

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