Nifty soars past 18,000-mark; Sensex climbs 651 points

Mumbai [India], January 10 (ANI): The Indian equities markets witnessed strong rally on Monday defying the concerns over rising COVID-19 cases and weak global cues. The benchmark Nifty 50 crossed psychologically important 18,000 points mark and Sensex climbed 651 points.
There was strong buying support in auto, infra, banking and IT stocks. Titan surged 3.29 per cent. Maruti Suzuki jumped nearly 3 per cent. Larsen & Toubro and State Bank of India gained around two-and-a-half per cent.
The markets started the week on a strong positive note with benchmark Sensex opening above 60,000 points mark.
The 30 stock S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange closed at 60,395.63 points, which is 650.98 points or 1.09 per cent higher from its previous session's close at 59,744.65 points.
Earlier the Sensex opened sharply higher at 60,070.39 points and surged to a high of 60,427.36 points in the intra-day trade.
The broader Nifty 50 of the National Stock Exchange closed at 18,003.30 points, which is 1.07 per cent or 190.60 points higher from its previous session's close at 17,812.70 points.
The Nifty 50 opened on a strong positive note at 17,913.30 points and surged to a high of 18,017.45 points in the intra-day.
There was strong buying support in auto, infra, banking and IT stocks. Titan surged 3.29 per cent to Rs 2657.35. Maruti Suzuki soared 2.74 per cent to Rs 8123.85.
Share price of Larsen & Toubro surged 2.54 per cent to Rs 1953.15 after the company announced it has bagged a contract to design and construct a part of Mumbai Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project, India's first high speed rail corridor, popularly referred to as the bullet train project.
State Bank of India soared 2.54 per cent to Rs 503.55. HDFC 2.43 per cent higher at Rs 2660.05; Kotak Bank 2.34 per cent higher at Rs 1948.05; ITC 2.20 per cent higher at Rs 223.30; ICICI Bank 2.16 per cent higher at Rs 810.50 and Infosys 2.09 per cent higher at Rs 1851.10 were among the major Sensex gainers.
One-third of the 30 scrips that are part of the Sensex closed in the red. Wipro slumped 2.47 per cent to Rs 693.65. Nestle India dipped 1.17 per cent to Rs 19690.10; Asian Paints dropped 0.55 per cent to Rs 3555.
Power Grid Corporation 0.51 per cent down at Rs 204; Sun Pharma 0.46 per cent down at Rs 825; Hindustan Unilever 0.39 per cent down at Rs 2407.10 and Dr Reddy's Laboratories 0.31 per cent down at Rs 4694 were among the major Sensex losers. (ANI)