Sensex surges over 300 points in early trade; Titan, Axis Bank, HDFC among top gainers

Mumbai: Equity benchmark Sensex surged over 300 points in early trade on Monday, tracking gains in index majors HDFC, Reliance Industries and Infosys amid a positive trend in global equities. The 30-share index was trading 333.69 points or 0.63 percent higher at 52,920.53 in initial deals, while the broader NSE Nifty advanced 101.65 points or 0.64 percent to 15,864.70. Titan was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising around 2 percent, followed by Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, HDFC, Maruti, Bajaj Finserv, Infosys and Reliance Industries. On the other hand, Tech Mahindra, Sun Pharma, NTPC, PowerGrid and Dr Reddy’s were among the laggards. In the previous session, Sensex slipped 66.23 points or 0.13 percent to close at 52,586.84, while the broader NSE Nifty dipped 15.40 points or 0.10 percent to 15,763.05. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 3,848.31 crore on Friday, as per provisional exchange data. “Barring financials, June quarter earnings so far have been encouraging and most companies succeeded to beat consensus estimates, which offered comfort and aided to restrict sharp fall despite selling pressure in global equities,” said Binod Modi Head-Strategy at Reliance Securities. Further, persistent soft monetary policy stance of Federal Reserve along with least possibility of any reversal of monthly bond buying in the near to medium term and recent softening of dollar index augur well for emerging markets including India, Modi added. Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong were trading with significant gains in mid-session deals. Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude declined 1.14 percent to $74.55 per barrel.