Sensex rises over 200 pts on firm Asian cues

The benchmark Sensex on Monday rose over 200 points, while Nifty reclaimed the 10,800-mark on widespread buying in metals, auto, IT and banking counters, amid firm Asian cues and a strengthening rupee.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 244.84 points, or 0.69 per cent, to 35,902.70. The gauge had gained 83.31 points in the previous session on Friday.

All sectoral indices, led by metal, auto, infrastructure, power, capital goods, healthcare and bankex, were in the green, rising up to 1.61 per cent.

The NSE Nifty recaptured the key 10,800-level by rising 68.35 points, or 0.63 per cent, to 10,841.00.

Major gainers were Tata Steel, Vedanta, Yes Bank, Tata Motors, RIL, M&M , Asian Paints, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Bajaj Auto, Power Grid, Coal India, Maruti Suzuki, NTPC, L&T, SBI, IndusInd Bank, Bharti Airtel, and Infosys, gaining up to 1.85 per cent.

Investors are also looking forward to the quarterly results of IT majors TCS and Infosys that will kick-start the earnings season later this week.

TCS was trading lower by 1.28 per cent at Rs 1,888.80, while Infosys was up 0.62 per cent at Rs 1,292.40.

Asian shares rose tracking gains on Wall Street after the release of strong jobs data for June, which muffled the impact of an escalating US-China trade dispute.

Rupee rose by 30 paise to trade at 68.57 against the US dollar at the forex market, fuelling the uptrend in domestic equities.             

Brokers said besides fresh buying by domestic institutional investors (DIIs), a firm trend at other Asian markets influenced sentiments.

DIIs bought shares worth a net of Rs 1,480.82 crore, while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold equities to the tune of Rs 968.18 crore on Friday, provisional data showed.

Globally, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.61 per cent, Japan's Nikkei gained 3.11 per cent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index advanced 1.65 per cent.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.41 per cent higher on Friday.