Indian equities advance for 2nd session on global cues

Equity benchmark Sensex Monday climbed over 155 points to close over 35,850, tracking positive cues from global markets coupled with a dovish tone from the Federal Reserve and hopes of better China-US trade relations.

Besides, an improvement in liquidity situation in domestic markets and high optimism with regard to the upcoming earnings season boosted investors' sentiment.

The 30-share Sensex opened higher and continued its upward march to regain the 36,000-mark, hitting a high of 36,076.95. It, however, lost some ground towards the fag-end due to profit-booking and a weak trend in european markets and settled 155.06 points, or 0.43 per cent, higher at 35,850.16.

The gauge had gained over 181 points in the previous session on Friday.

Similarly, the broader 50-share NSE Nifty gained 44.45 points, or 0.41 per cent, to end at 10,771.80 after touching a high of 10,835.95 and a ow of 10,750.15.

Gains in realty, teck, IT, power, consumer durables, banking and oil and gas stocks helped both the key indices to score gains.

Both the US and China have expressed an interest in settling their tariff war. Envoys of both nations will have discussions during meetings on Monday and Tuesday.

"Domestic market gained on back of positive global cues led by dovish comments from the Fed and strong US jobs data. While, oil prices gained some strength on back of supply cut OPEC and on hope of an agreement between US-China on trade talks this week. On domestic front, easing liquidity situation, appreciation in INR and selective buying in FMCG, IT and private banks on expectation of strong earnings," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services Ltd.

Top software services exporters TCS and Infosys scheduled to report their results for the December quarter on January 10 and January 11, respectively.

Investor sentiment also got a boost after China's central bank announced an easing in policy Friday, with 100 basis points of cut to bank reserve requirements freeing up around USD 116 billion for new lending, market analysts said.

Meanwhile, domestic institutional investors bought equities to the tune of Rs 240.60 crore, while FIIs sold shares a worth Rs 157.72 crore Friday, according to provisional data.

Private lender Axis Bank was the best gainer among Sensex components, surging 2.84 per cent followed by Tata Motors 2.64 per cent.

Other big gainers include Infosys, Maruti Suzuki, NTPC, ONGC, TCS, PowerGrid, HCL Technlogies, Asian Paint, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, M&M, RIL, ITC Ltd, Bharti Airtel, Hind Unilever, Vedanta, HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank and HDFC Ltd, rising up to 1.57 per cent.

In contrast, Bajaj Auto, Yes Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Finance, Sun Pharma, SBI, Coal India, L&T and Tata Steel ended lower up to 2.82 per cent and limited the gains.

Among Sectoral indices, realty emerged top performer by surging 1.55 per cent, followed by teck 1.16 per cent, IT 1.11 per cent, consumer durables 1.06 per cent, power 1.03 per cent, infrastrcuture 0.38 per cent, bankex 0.37 per cent, FMCG 0.25 per cent, oil&gas 0.18 per cent and PSU 0.18 per cent.

However, healthcare, metal and auto indices ended in the negative zone.

The market rally lifted the mid-cap and small-cap indices higher as ivnestors raised their bets.

Among other Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei surged by 2.44 per cent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.82 per cent. The Shanghai Composite index was up by 0.72 per cent and Korea's KOSPI gained 1.34 per cent.

European markets were trading in negative zone in their early session with Paris CAC faling by 0.30 per cent while Frankfurt's DAX down 0.30 per cent. London's FTSE shed 0.38 per cent.