Nifty reclaims 7,800-mark

Mumbai: Markets kick-start Christmas celebration on Dalal Street with bulls back in action with high spirits. On the first trading day of the week, on Monday, investors show fresh buying interest as the sentiment looks firm, as the uncertainty over Fed rate hike is over.

Interestingly, the foreign funders see the valuations are a bit high, though they are more inclined to India among emerging markets. They see additional rate cut chance considering the falling inflation rate.

Sensex was up 217 points to close at 25,736 and Nifty up 73 points to end at 7,834. Also broader markets gained on par with the headline indices.

On sectoral front, heavy buying is seen in banking, automobile, metal, IT and FMCG sectors, while healthcare and consumer durables shares declined.

The metal shares have risen as the government plan for minimum import price for steel in order to prevent cheap imports. The companies Tata Steel, Vedanta and Hindalco gained up to 2.7 per cent.

Even bank shares gained on the back of higher degree of recovery following the Bankruptcy Code 2015 introduced in Parliament, thus pushing the reform agenda. The shares of ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, SBI and HDFC Bank gained from 0.3 per cent to 3.4 per cent.

Other gainers include ONGC, ITC, M&M, Infosys and Hero Motocorp up to 3 per cent each. On the other hand Sun Pharma faced selling pressure as the company gets warning from USFDA.

The gainers: ICICI Bank, up 3.24 per cent at Rs 258.20; ONGC, up 3.16 per cent at Rs 230.30; ITC, up 2.68 per cent at Rs 325.75; Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), up 2.64 per cent at Rs 1,277.15; and Axis Bank, up 2.09 per cent at Rs 441.45.

The losers: Sun Pharma, down 4.55 per cent at Rs 754.45; Gail, down 0.97 per cent at Rs 336.70; Hindustan Unilever, down 0.81 per cent at Rs 852.10; and Asian Paint, down 0.66 per cent at Rs 875.05.