Sensex gains 192 pts as Hindu New Year gets off to a rosy start

BSE benchmark Sensex rose 192 points to end at 39,250 on Sunday as investors built up fresh positions in the special Muhurat trading session to mark the beginning of Hindu Samvat year 2076.

The 30-share index, after opening on a firm footing at 39,397.37, inched up to 39,402.23 as investors accumulated select auto, IT and bank stocks.

It pared some gains on profit-booking and finally ended at 39,250.20, up 192.14 points, or 0.49 per cent.

On similar lines, the broader NSE Nifty climbed 43.25 points, or 0.37 per cent, to finish at 11,627.15.

In the Sensex kitty, prominent gainers were Tata Motors, Yes Bank, M&M, Vedanta, Infosys and Tech Mahindra, spurting up to 16.54 per cent.

However, losers included Maruti, Bharti Airtel, TCS and HCL Tech, which lost up to 0.78 per cent.

Brokers said buying activity gathered momentum as investors opened their new books on the first session of Samvat 2076.

Barring telecom and consumer durables, all BSE sectoral indices finished in the green, led by industrials, auto, basic materials and capital goods.

A similar trend was seen in the broader markets as well, with investors snapping up stocks available at attractive levels. The BSE small-cap index jumped 1.20 per cent and the mid-cap gauge gained 0.69 per cent.

Domestic markets conduct a special Muhurat trading session on Diwali every year to mark the beginning of the traditional Hindu calendar year, called 'Vikram Samvat'.

In the previous Samvat 2075, the BSE Sensex gained 4,066.15 points or 11.62 per cent, while the Nifty soared 1,053.90 points or 10 per cent.

The BSE and NSE will remain closed on Monday (October 28) on the occasion of 'Diwali Balipratipada'.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net sold shares worth Rs 435.42 crore on Friday, while domestic institutional investors bought to the tune of Rs 440.16 crore, as per provisional data.