Sensex up 116 points, Nifty reclaims 8,500-mark

The BSE Sensex and Nifty pared the day's losses in the last hour of trade, shrugging aside worries about Greece exiting euro zone after the country rejected the latest bailout package by creditors in a landmark referendum.

While the 30-share Sensex closed 0.41 per cent higher at 28,208.76, marking its highest close since April 17; the 50-share Nifty gained 0.44 per cent to close above the psychologically-important 8,500-level for the first time since April 17, at 8,522.15. The Sensex had opened at 27,857.20 and touched a high and low of 28,235.31 and 27,774.80, respectively. The Nifty had opened at 8,386.15 and touched a high and low of 8,533.15 and 8,386.15, respectively.

Among the Sensex stocks, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Cipla, Hero MotoCorp, TCS and HDFC Bank were the top performers with gains of 3.64 per cent, 3.35 per cent, 1.34 per cent, 1.07 per cent and 1.07 per cent, respectively. However, Vedanta, Hindalco, NTPC, Tata Steel and Infosys declined by 4.45 per cent, 1.36 per cent, 0.76 per cent, 0.73 per cent and 0.65 per cent, respectively, and stood at the bottom of the performance chart.

"The market recovered smartly in afternoon trade after early morning sell off on account of Grexit fears. Greece voters overwhelmingly rejected the latest bailout package from European creditors in Sunday's referendum. Indian markets are resilient against Greece crisis. Further, strengthening of rupee and renewed buying interest by foreign portfolio investors boosted sentiment to shut the day on a firm note," said Gaurav Jain, director, Hem Securities.

Hiren Dhak, associate fund manager, Bonanza Portfolio, adds that "positive cues from Chinese markets helped the market's sentiments for the day."

Chinese markets rallied almost 3 per cent after a series of measures that were announced last weekend. China's top brokerages collectively pledged to buy at least 120 million yuan which amounts to roughly $19.3 billion worth of equities to help the markets stabilise. China Mutual Fund Association also in a similar announcement said that 25 companies have pledged to buy equities. The Chinese government also made an emergency intervention in the markets by committing to provide liquidity for state-backed lender China Securities Finance Corporation that provides margin loads to brokerages.

Barring the BSE Consumer Durables index (down 0.92 per cent), BSE Metal index (down 0.62 per cent) and BSE TECk index (down 0.02 per cent), all other sectoral indices on the Bombay Stock Exchange ended in green. The BSE Healthcare index jumped the most-1.66 per cent to 16940.61. It was followed by BSE Oil & Gas index (up 1.1 per cent to 10115.86), BSE Realty index (up 0.74 per cent to 1434.37) and BSE FMCG index (up 0.66 per cent to 7870.84).

The overall market breadth remained strong on the BSE as 1,792 stocks ended with gains while 1,006 closed in loss.

Asian peer markets Nikkei 225 and Hang Seng ended in red by 2.08 per cent and 3.18 per cent while Shanghai was up by 2.42 per cent on Monday. With the possibility of 'Grexit' gaining strength, the European markets were seen down for the day.