Sensex Gains 231 Points, Nifty Ends Above 17,200 Led By Auto, Bank Stocks

Domestic markets edged lower for a fourth straight session on Monday, weighed down by financial stocks, taking a cue from Asian markets as Shanghai announced a lockdown amid rising Covid-19 cases, spurring worries about a hit to global activity.?

The BSE Sensex had touched a low of 56,825, but recovered to 57,593.5, gaining 231 points (0.4%) while the NSE Nifty languished marginally in red around 17,181.85 levels at 2:35 pm but gained back to settle at 17,222, up 69 points or (0.4%). ?

Bharti Airtel, ITC, and ICICI Bank and Axis Bank were prominent gainers among the Sensex 30 shares, with up to 3.4% gain. Reliance, Maruti, IndusInd Bank were the other gainers.

On the other hand, Dr.Reddy's slipped -1.4 per cent, while Nestle shed 1.83 per cent. HDFC, HCL Technologies, L&T and Tech Mahindra were the other notable losers.

The broader markets, however, continues to languish at lower levels. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were down around 0.4 per cent and 0.5 per cent each.?

Eleven of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty Bank index's 0.85 per cent rise. On the other hand, Nifty IT, Nifty Consumer Durables, Nifty Pharma, and Healthcare indexes fell between 0.3-0.92 per cent each.

Nifty Mid- and small-cap shares were also facing selling pressure as Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 0.24 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index declined 0.24 per cent.

Earlier, Asian shares and oil prices both slid on Monday as coronavirus lockdown in Shanghai looked set to hit global activity, while the yen extended its stomach-churning descent as the Bank of Japan acted to keep local yields near zero. Chinese blue chips shed 0.8 per cent.?

Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.7 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng added over 1 per cent, and China's CSI300 fell 0.6 per cent.

On Wall Street, Dow Jones Futures were up 0.08 per cent while the Nasdaq Composite Futures dipped 0.3 per cent.