Sensex rises over 250 points; Tata Motors hits record high after Q3 earnings

The Indian equity benchmarks edged higher after starting on a flat note on Monday powered by gains in Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services, ITC, Mahindra & Mahindra and Sun Pharma. The Sensex rose as much as 300 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 21921.

As of 9:56 am, the Sensex was up 225 points at 72,311 and Nifty 50 index was up 46 points at 21,900.

Most of the Asian markets were trading lower as after strong as hopes of early rate cut from the US Federal Reserve waned on th eback of str-ong US Labour Market data.

Japan's Nikkei rose 0.56 per cent, China's Shanghai Composite dropped 2.3 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 0.15 per cent and Australia's S&P ASX 200 fell 1.03 per cent.

Back home, sixteen of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE were trading higher Auto index's 2 per cent gain. Oil & gas, metal, power, real estate, consumer discretionary, energy and utilities shares were also witnessing buying interest.

On the other hand, select banking, capital goods and financial services shares were facing selling pressure.

Mid- and small-cap shares were witnessing buying interest as Midcap index rose 0.92 per cent and Smallcap index 0.56 per cent.

Among the individual shares, Paytm shares were locked in lower circuit for third straight session at Rs 438.35 after the Reserve Bank of India imposed restriction on Paytm Payments Bank.

Tata Motors was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose nearly 8 per cent to hit record high of Rs 948.50 after its net profit in December quarter more than doubled to Rs 7,205 crore.

Sun Pharma, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, NTPC, Power Grid, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Asian Paints and TCS also rose between 1-2.5 per cent.

On the flipside, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Hindustan Unilever and Bajaj Finance were among the laggards.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,057 shares were trading higher while 1,173 were declining on the BSE.