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Asian stocks traded mostly higher Monday, with the yen’s move lower boosting Japan but weighing on South Korea after the weekend’s Group of 20 meeting remained silent on the Japanese currency’s recent depreciation. Nikkei added 2% at 11,397. Shanghai Composite and Taiwan Weighted moved up around half a per cent each.
In other news, gold rebounded from a six-month low on Monday as bargain hunters resurfaced and jewellers in China returned to the physical market after the Lunar New Year holiday, but a firm US dollar was likely to limit the upside.
The rupee, meanwhile, declined by 14 paise to Rs 54.36 per dollar in early trade on the Interbank Foreign Exchange market today, weighed down by dollar's gains against other currency rivals. Jewellery stocks have moved up on the news. Winsome Diamonds, Swarnasarita Gems and PC Jewellers are up 0.5-2.5% each.
From the sectoral pack, BSE consumer durables index bucked trend and shed 0.5% at 7,210. IT and FMCG shares also showed some weakness. On the other hand, BSE realty index surged 2% at 2,077. PSU and oil & gas shares were also in green.
Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services gained over 5% at Rs 212 on the back of strong volumes. The stock opened at Rs 202 which was close to the lows of the day and quickly went on to touch the day's high thus far at Rs 221.
PSU oil marketing companies (OMCs) like BPCL, HPCL and Indian Oil gained in the range of 0.6-1.4% as these companies effected the hike in petrol price by Rs 1.50 paisa per litre and diesel prices by 45 paise per litre over the weekend.
