Sensex gains 150 points, inches towards 26,000-mark; Nifty edge past 7,900

Domestic equities made a firm start early Monday, with benchmark Sensex fast approaching the psychological 26,000-mark while adding 150 points amid short-covering ahead of this week’s F&O expiry Thursday. [caption id=“attachment_2561614” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] Shrugging off the sluggish trades in other Asian indices, local traders bought select automobile, banking and pharma shares that propelled the Sensex to an early high of 25,988.55, up 150 points. At 10.10, the 30-share BSE S&P Sensex was at 25,979.24, up 140.53 points, or 0.5 percent, while the broader 50-stock CNX Nifty breached the 7,900-mark at 7,901.30, up 40.25 points, or 0.5 percent. Local traders said markets may not see hectic trading activity this week owing to subdued FII performance, which are absent from the markets due to year-end holiday celebrations. According to them, equity indices may move in a range-bound mode with a mixed bias this week, as lack of investor participation coupled with sluggish global and internal factors would keep investors on the sidelines. Market breadth was extremely positive with gainers outpacing losers by over 2:1, as 1,373 stocks advanced while 509 declined on BSE. Other Asian gauges such as Hang Seng fell 0.3 percent and Shanghai Composite was down 0.2 percent even as Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.3 percent. Among the gainers in the Sensex pack, shares of Tata Motors rose 2.1 percent to Rs 390.50, ICICI Bank added 1.3 percent to Rs 261.25, NTPC rose 1.2 percent to Rs 140.75, Reliance Industries gained 1 percent to Rs 1,010.80 and Sun Pharma was up 0.9 percent at Rs 798.60. Others such as Lupin, Infosys, Gail, Cipla, Hindustan Unilever, ITC and ONGC were up around a percent each.