Sensex Zooms Over 920 Points, Nifty Crosses 17,650; Banking, Auto Stocks Top Gainers

Mid- and small-cap shares jumped as Nifty Midcap 100 index climbed 1.33 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index surged 1.15 per cent

New Delhi: The first trading session of 2022 of the key Indian equity benchmarks began on a positive note led by gains in banking and auto stocks.

The BSE Sensex opened with tepid gain of less than 100 points, but gained strength during the day to hit a high of 59,266. It, eventually, settled 929 points higher at 59,183 levels with 26 of the 30 index constituents ending the session in the green.

While the NSE Nifty shut shop at 17,626 levels, up 272 points.

It hit an intra-day high of 17,647. 44 of the 50 index stocks ended higher led by Coal India (up 9 per cent), Eicher Motors, Bajaj twins, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, IndusInd Bank, and HDFC Bank.

Mid- and small-cap shares jumped as Nifty Midcap 100 index climbed 1.33 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index surged 1.15 per cent.

Cipla, Dr Reddy's Labs, and Divis Labs, Nestle India, HUL, and M&M were some of the other top losers on Monday.

Global stock markets and US futures were mostly higher Monday on 2022's first trading day after Wall Street ended last year with a double-digit gain.

In the global market, Frankfurt and Paris opened higher while Seoul and India advanced. Hong Kong retreated. Markets in Britain, China, Japan and Australia were closed.

Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 index slipped Friday amid lingering worries about the coronavirus’s omicron variant but ended 2021 with an annual gain of 26.9 per cent.

It remains to be seen to what extent the optimism of the New Year will be reflected in financial markets, said Venkateswaran Levanya of Mizuho Bank in a report.

In early trading, Frankfurt's DAX gained 0.8 per cent to 16,010.77 and the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.9 per cent to 7,213.57.

On Wall Street, futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were 0.4 per cent higher. On Friday, the S&P 500 slipped 0.3 per cent and the Dow slid 0.2 per cent. The Nasdaq fell 0.6 per cent.

Meanwhile, rupee slips 6 paise to 74.35 against US dollar in early trade on the first trading session of 2022.