Sensex soars 1,006 pts to above 80,000 on buying in Reliance & foreign fund inflows

Mumbai: Benchmark BSE Sensex soared by 1,006 points to close above 80,000 level on Monday as a sharp rally in Reliance Industries and private banks, and foreign fund inflows helped stock markets cut short two days of fall amid India-Pakistan border tensions.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 1,005.84 points or 1.27 per cent to settle at 80,218.37 with 23 of its constituents ending with gains and seven in the red. The NSE Nifty rallied 289.15 points or 1.20 per cent to close at 24,328.50.

All key sectors, barring IT, participated in the rally, with pharma, energy, and auto emerging as the top gainers.

Reliance Industries emerged as the biggest gainer among Sensex stocks, followed by Mahindra & Mahindra. Sun Pharma, Tata Steel, SBI, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, Larsen & Toubro and ICICI Bank were also among the Sensex gainers.

HCL Tech, UltraTech Cement, Nestle and Hindustan Unilever were among the laggards.

The BSE midcap gauge jumped 1.34 per cent and smallcap index climbed 0.39 per cent.

Among BSE sectoral indices, energy jumped 3.02 per cent, oil & gas (2.90 per cent), capital goods (1.93 per cent), healthcare (1.60 per cent), metal (1.59 per cent), bankex (1.53 per cent) and realty (1.41 per cent). IT and BSE Focused IT were the laggards.

The rupee appreciated 18 paise to close at 85.23 against the US dollar on Monday, supported by sustained foreign fund inflows, easing crude oil prices and a bullish trend in domestic equities.