CLOSING BELL Despite a weak Asian set-up and rising domestic wholesale inflation, Indian stock markets rose for a fifth straight day on Monday. This came as investors pinned hopes on fresh round of talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators.
The S&P BSE Sensex opened less than 100 points higher on the BSE but gathered pace as the day progressed. It, eventually, ended with a gain of 936 points, or 1.68 per cent, at 56,486. On the NSE, the broader Nifty50 surged 241 points, or 1.45 per cent, to close at 16,871.
Infosys was the biggest gainer on the bourses today as it rose 4 per cent. That apart, HDFC Bank, SBI, Axis Bank, Maruti Suzuki, ICICI Bank, Titan, Wipro, and HDFC were the other star performers today, surging between 2 and 3.5 per cent.
On the downside, ONGC, Indian Oil Corporation, HUL, Tata Motors, Coal India, HDFC Life, JSW Steel, and Sun Pharma were the biggest drags, falling in the range of 1 to 2 per cent.
The broader markets, however, underperformed their large-cap peers by a wide margin. The BSE MidCap and the SmallCap indices added just 0.02 per cent and 0.3 per cent, respectively.
Among individual shares, those of
Jubilant FoodWorks plunged 14.6 per cent and hit a fresh 52-week low of Rs 2,444 per share on the BSE in Monday's intra-day trade as most brokerages downgraded the stock post CEO Pratik Pota's resignation.
READ MORE Moreover, shares of One97 Communications, the parent company of digital payments major
Paytm, tanked 14.5 per cent to hit a new low of Rs 662 on the BSE in Monday's intra-day trade after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) barred Paytm Payments Bank (PPBL) from onboarding new customers with immediate effect because of certain supervisory concerns.
READ MORE Overall, 1,751 stocks closed in the positive territory on the BSE as against 1,721 stocks that ended in the red.
Sectorally, the Nifty Realty index declined the most on the NSE, falling 2 per cent, while the Nifty Bank, Financial Services, and IT indices added 2 per cent each.
Global markets
European markets started higher on Monday with the pan-European Stoxx 600 adding 0.7 per cent in early trade, with autos jumping 3.7 per cent to lead gains while basic resources fell 1.8 per cent.
On Wall Street, futures linked to the three main indices spurted between 0.5 per cent and 0.8 per cent.
In Asia, however, indices ended mixed. Japan's Nikkei closed 0.6 per cent higher while South Korea's Kospi dipped by equal percentage. Hong Kong's Hang Seng plummeted 5 per cent and China's Shanghai Composite closed 2.6 per cent lower.
 "Sensex soars 936 pts, Nifty tops 16,850; HDFC Bank rises 3%, Paytm dips 12%")
