Sensex tops 60k, Nifty trades near 17,750; IT stocks surge; Adani stocks jump up to 10%

Domestic equity markets kicked off the new week on a higher note and extended their gains on Monday, tracking the firm global cues. The fall in the US bond yields, eased down dollar and positive economic data from the US supported the sentiments for the riskier assets.

BSE Sensex topped the 60,000 mark as the 30-share pack jumped 519.83 points, or 0.87 per cent, to 60,328.80 at 9.25 am. NSE's Nifty 50 surged 148.50 points, or 0.84 per cent, to 17,742.85 at the same time. BSE midcap and smallcap index jumped about a per cent, each. Fear gauge India VIX dropped about 2 per cent to slip below the 12-level.

The weekly price action resulted in a small bull candle carrying lower high-low, indicating buying demand emerging from key support of 17,200 backed by improving market breadth, said ICICIDirect Research.

"We expect the index to hold key support of 17,200 and head towards short-term hurdle of 17,800, sustainability above which would lead to an acceleration of upward momentum towards 18,300 in March as it is 61.8 per cent retracement of past three months decline. Thus, any dips from hereon should be capitalized to accumulate quality stocks," it said.

All the sectors of Nifty were trading higher during the early trading hours on Monday. Nifty IT Index jumped about 2 per cent whereas Nifty Metal index rose over a per cent. Nifty Auto, Financial Services and Private Bank indices were other top gainers for the day.

Adani Group stocks continued to gain as Adani Enterprises rallied about another 10 per cent, whereas Adani Ports rose 3 per cent. Adani Power Ltd, Adani Green Ltd, Adani Transmission Ltd, Adani Wilmar Ltd, Adani Total Gas and NDTV hit an upper circuit of 5 per cent, each. Ambuja Cement was up by 2 per cent, whereas ACC was also trading in green.

Barring the Adani Group stocks, HCL Tech and Infosys jumped about 2 per cent, each, whereas Wipro, Bajaj Finserv, Tata Consultancy and Tata Motors were other top gainers. Only six Nifty50 stocks were trading in the red. Britannia Industries, Cipla and JSW Steel declined about a per cent, each. Hindalco, Ultratech Cement and Dr Reddy's Labs were other laggards.

The trend reversal in Nifty led by banking and metals has more legs to go. When the market gets oversold, as happened in recent weeks, the bounce back triggered by short-covering can be sharp. The rally in banking stocks may gather momentum taking cues from the GQG investment in four Adani stocks, said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

"This week may throw up some important triggers relating to US non-farm payroll data and takeaways from the Fed chief Powell’s views on the US economic outlook. Since the trends from the mother market of the US are crucial for global equity markets, investors have to watch out for these data," he said.

In the broader markets, City gas distribution companies were at the focus as the price of natural gas tanked in the broader markets. 5paisa Capital jumped about 19 per cent to Rs 332.85, whereas Privi Speciality Chemicals jumped over 11 per cent to Rs 1,027.15. Aptus Value Housing Finance India advanced 8 per cent.

On the contrary, Hinduja Global plunged more than 15 per cent, whereas Fermenta Biotech slipped about 6 per cent during the early trade. Texmaco Infra dropped 5 per cent after the resignation of its independent director.

Also read: Adani Enterprises shares rally 8%; Adani Green, Adani Power, 4 other Adani group stocks hit 5% upper circuit limits. Here's why

Also read: Tata Steel, ONGC among Nifty shares at deep discount; RIL, Grasim, Infosys trade at premium over historical valuations