The two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Monday opened with firm gains and scaled new fresh highs for the third straight day amid positive global cues. At 9.38 am, the BSE Sensex jumped 444 points to its new high of 65,162. On the other hand, the NSE Nifty50 was trading at 19,314, up 125 points.
On the 30-share Sensex platform, HDFC, HDFC Bank, M&M, UltraCemco, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, SBI, Reliance were trading in the green. On the downside, PowerGrid, Maruti, Sun Pharma, TechM, L&T, Axis Bank, HUL were among the early losers. Among specific stocks, Apollo Tyres slipped 2 per cent after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock's rating to equal-weight.
In the broader markets, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rose up to 0.8 per cent.
All the sectors were trading the in the green during early morning trade.
In the previous session on Friday, Sensex ended with a solid gain of 803 points at 64,719, while the NSE Nifty 50 closed 217 points stronger at 19,189.
GST collections crossed Rs 1.60 lakh crore mark for the fourth time since the roll-out of the indirect tax regime, rising 12 per cent to over Rs 1.61 lakh crore in June, the Finance Ministry said on Saturday.
"The ongoing rally in global stock markets is primarily driven by the surprising and unexpected strength of the US economy (2 per cent GDP growth in Q1 2023), in spite of the savage 500 bp rate hike by the Fed. Global markets, which had discounted a US recession by mid 2023, have been proved wrong and the markets are now compensating for the excessive pessimistic discounting in 2022," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.
In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong were trading in the green. The US markets ended significantly higher on Friday.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.01 per cent to $75.41 a barrel.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 6,397.13 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.
Meanwhile, the rupee gained 33 paise to 81.77 against the US dollar in early trade on Monday supported by sustained foreign fund inflows and bullish momentum in domestic equities as benchmark indices touched all-time highs.
At the interbank foreign exchange, the domestic unit opened at 82.01 against the dollar and then rose to 81.77, registering a gain of 33 paise over its previous close.
On Friday, the rupee closed at 82.10 against the US currency. Forex traders said the rupee is trading on a positive note on significant foreign fund inflows and positive macro economic indicators.