Sensex, Nifty sparkle as Samvat 2079 begins on auspicious note

Domestic equity benchmarks posted robust gains on Monday as investors built up fresh positions in the special one-hour Muhurat trading session to mark the beginning of Hindu Samvat year 2079.

Extending its gains to the seventh straight session, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 524.51 points or 0.88 per cent to close at 59,831.66.

On similar lines, the broader NSE Nifty advanced 154.45 points, or 0.88 per cent, to finish at 17730.75.

In the Sensex kitty, prominent gainers were Nestle India, ICICI Bank, L&T, SBI, HDFC, HDFC Bank and Dr Reddy's, spurting as much as 2.92 per cent.

Only two counters closed in the red -- Hindustan Unilever and Kotak Mahindra Bank, shedding up to 3.05 per cent.

Brokers said buying activity gathered momentum as investors opened their new books in the first session of Samvat 2079.

Global equities were largely in the positive territory following strong gains on Wall Street on Friday.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Tokyo and Seoul closed in the green, while Shanghai and Hong Kong plunged up to 6.36 per cent, posting their worst day in over a decade.

Bourses in Europe were trading in the positive zone in the afternoon session.

Barring FMCG, all BSE sectoral indices ticked higher, led by capital goods, industrials, financial services and telecom.

A similar trend was seen in the broader markets, with the BSE small-cap index rising 0.99 per cent and the mid-cap gauge gaining 0.50 per cent.

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

In the previous Samvat 2078, the Sensex dipped 464.77 points, while the Nifty shed 252.90 points.

"Even though Samvat 2078 ended with marginal negative returns, the overarching feature of the year gone by was India's distinct outperformance. While the MSCI World Index and MSCI Emerging Market Index fell by 23 per cent and 33 per cent respectively, Nifty hugely outperformed with a minor cut of only 3 per cent.

"This outperformance in a year of a war in Europe and rising inflation and interest rates in the developed world reflects Rising India's resilience," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

"From the market perspective, two factors stand out -- One, India's economic fundamentals are relatively strong. Two, DIIs and retail investors have become a force to reckon with, overwhelming the FII selling. This trend can be expected to continue," he added.

The BSE and NSE will be closed on Wednesday (October 26) on the occasion of 'Diwali Balipratipada'.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 438.89 crore on Friday, while domestic institutional investors sold to the tune of Rs 119.08 crore, as per exchange data.

Ajay Devgn, a Bollywood actor, rang the first bell of the Muhurat hour. Girish Joshi, Head of the BSE's Listing Business, Sameer Patil, Chief Belief Officer, and Nayan Mehta, the Chief Financial Officer, also attended the occasion.