Mumbai: Rising for the second straight day, the benchmark BSE Sensex surged 402 points Monday to close at over two-week high of 27,507.30 on RBI rate cut hopes, better-than-expected corporate earnings and firm Asian cues.
The NSE Nifty too spurted by 133.75 points or 1.63 percent to settle at one-week high of 8,325.25.
Meanwhile, to assuage concerns of foreign investors slapped with MAT demand, the government today put on hold issuance of fresh notices and any further assessments on levy of this tax on such entities.
Traders said, China slashing interest rates by 25 basis points and US reporting strong jobs data boosted market sentiment in emerging nations, including India.
"Though it is not certain if China's latest interest cut could be taken as a positive for Indian markets, it sure did help traders' sentiments, which were looking for cues to carry on with Friday's short covering," said Anand James, Co Head Technical Research Desk at Geojit BNP Paribas.
Meanwhile, the government will unveil inflation data based on the consumer price index (CPI) for April and Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data for March tomorrow.
The BSE 30-share Sensex resumed on a positive note and touched an intra-day high of 27,544.24 before settling 401.91 points or 1.48 percent higher at 27,507.30. Earlier, it had ended at 27,735.02 on April 23.
Of the 30 Sensex stocks, 26 ended with gains.
The index had gained 506.28 points on Friday after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley referred the MAT issue to a high-level committee.
The broader 50-issue NSE Nifty regained the 8,300-mark to hit session's high of 8,332.75 and concluded 133.75 points or 1.63 percent higher at 8,325.25.
On the day, Bank of Baroda's reported a decline in its standalone net profit by 48 percent to Rs 598.35 crore for the quarter ended March 31.
"Among major market moving events in the economy, Bank of Baroda surged more than 17 percent intraday on the back of significant improvement in asset quality," said Rakesh Goyal, Senior Vice President at Bonanza Portfolio.
Buying was witnessed across the board as 11 out of 12 BSE sectoral indices closed in the green in the range of 0.90 to 2.52 percent.
Metal, auto, banking, consumer durables, healthcare, IT, oil&Gas, power, consumer goods and teck segments taking the lead.
Rise in heavyweights like HDFC, SBI, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, Infosys, Sun Pharma, HDFC Bank, Vedanta, TCS, Axis Bank, L&T and Hero MotoCorp together contributed almost 350 points to the Sensex surge.
Second-line stocks, too, were in demand on good buying from retail investors after the recent heavy sell-off.
"Indices added over one and half percent as blue-chip companies traded higher on value-buying with well supported from strong Asian market. Now traders are eagerly waiting for the series of US data lined for the week," said Jignesh Chaudhary, Head of Research at Veracity Broking Services.
In other Asian markets, except Taiwan, which ended in the red, other indices concluded higher between 0.51 and 3.04 percent.
The US Dow Jones last Friday ended 1.49 percent higher, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq grew 1.17 percent.
Back home, SBI was the biggest gainer on the Sensex with a rise of 5.44 percent, followed by Vedanta 5.34 percent, Hero Motocorp 3.59 percent, HDFC 3.16 percent, Tata Motors 3.15 percent, Tata Steel 2.91 percent, Bajaj Auto 2.48 percent, Sun Pharma 2.41 percent, Hindalco 2.19 percent, ICICI Bank 2.04 percent and NTPC 1.97 percent.
Among the BSE sectoral indices, metal rose by 2.52 percent, followed by auto 2.52 percent, bankex 2.40 percent, consumer durables 2.27 percent, healthcare 1.69 percent, power 1.56 percent, IT 1.34 percent, consumer goods 1.18 percent and teck 1.12 percent.
Smallcap and midcap indices also rose by 1.28 percent and 2.53 percent, respectively.
The market breadth remained positive as 1,760 stocks ended with gains, 969 stocks finished in the red, while 102 ruled steady. The total turnover dropped to Rs 2,718.72 crore from Rs 2,960.28 crore last Friday.
