SENSEX surges 600 points, NIFTY50 above 24,150 as crude oil drops in international markets

The Indian equity benchmarks staged a gap up opening on Monday, May 4, after crude oil prices declined sharply over the extended weekend. The SENSEX rose as much as 833 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday high of 24,245 led by gains in index heavyweights like HDFC Bank, Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, Maruti Suzuki, Hindustan Unilever and Mahindra & Mahindra.

As of 9:24 am, the SENSEX was up 584 points at 77,497 and NIFTY50 index advanced 178 points to 24,175.

Crude oil prices declined sharply over the extended weekend after President Donald Trump said the US would start helping free ships stranded in the Gulf by the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Brent crude futures which touched a multi-year high of $126 per barrel on Thursday fell to $108 per barrel on Monday reinforcing hopes that inflation will not spiral out of control, market participants noted.

Back home, market participants were closely watching out for assembly election results in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry.

In Assam BJP was ahead on 81 seats, clearing the half-way mark. In Tamil Nadu TVK was leading on 67 seats and in Kerala UDF was ahead on 65 seats.

On Dalal Street, buying was visible across board as all the major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) were trading higher led by the NIFTY Auto index's over 2% gain. NIFTY Bank, Financial Services, FMCG, PSU Bank, Realty, Metal and Pharma indices also rose between 0.8% and 1.57%.

Broader markets were also witnessing buying interest as NIFTY Midcap 100 index advanced 1% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index rose 0.9%.

Bajaj Auto was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock rose 4.17% to ₹10,410 after it reported a 20% rise in total sales at 4,45,377 units in March as compared to 3,69,823 units in the same month last year.

Total domestic sales were at 2,66,290 units last month as against 2,21,474 units in the year-ago period, up 20%, Bajaj Auto Ltd said in a regulatory filing.

Maruti Suzuki, Hindustan Unilever, Shriram Finance, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra, Asian Paints and Eicher Motors also rose between 2.1% and 4%.

On the flipside, Kotak Mahindra Bank was top loser in the NIFTY50 index, the stock fell 3% to ₹372 as its Q4 earnings failed to enthuse investors. Kotak Bank's net profit in March quarter rose 13% to ₹4,027 crore in January-March quarter.

Dr Reddy's Labs, ONGC, TCS, Titan and Eternal were also among the notable laggards in the NIFTY50 index.

The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,269 shares were advancing while 646 were declining on the NSE.