Sensex opens higher, Nifty above 5850; NBFC stocks rally

NEW DELHI: The BSE Sensex surged 0.2 per cent early on Monday, led by gains in Infosys, ICICI Bank and Tata Motors.

At 9:20 a.m., the Nifty was trading 0.11 per cent higher at 5,857.85. It touched a high of 5874.25 and a low of 5854.85 in early trade today.

The BSE Sensex was trading 0.15 per cent higher at 19,346.07. Infosys (1.5 per cent), ICICI Bank (0.4 per cent) and Tata Motors (0.8 per cent) led the gainers pack.

NBFC stocks like Religare Enterprises, L&T Finance Holdings, Sundaram Finance, Srei Infrastructure surged 1-7 per cent in early trade today, after the Reserve Bank of India on Friday released final guidelines for issuing new bank licences.

The new guidelines pave the way for corporate houses to enter the banking sector. The most important thing is that RBI has not excluded companies or entities from any specific industry from applying for a new bank licence.

The BSE Midcap Index was up 0.55 per cent and the BSE Smallcap Index rose 0.4 per cent.

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE IT Index gained 0.96 per cent, followed by the BSE Power Index which moved 0.7 per cent higher. The BSE HealthCare Index was up 0.46 per cent and the BSE Metal Index advanced 0.43 per cent.

BSE FMCG Index slipped 0.2 per cent, followed by the BSE Oil & Gas Index, which dropped 0.2 per cent and the Realty Index was down 0.14 per cent.

Wipro (1.2 per cent), Infosys (1.5 per cent), Jindal Steel (1.09 per cent), Tata Motors (0.85 per cent) and State Bank of India (up 0.6 per cent) were among top Sensex gainers.

Hero MotoCorp (1.1 per cent), Bharti Airtel (1 per cent), DRL (0.68 per cent), ITC (0.56 per cent) and Coal India (0.48 per cent) were among top Sensex losers.

Asian shares edged higher led by Nikkei, which surged over jumped 1.8 per cent to a 53-month high as the yen fell to fresh lows.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index was trading 1.7 per cent higher at 11,579.17 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was trading 0.01 per cent lower at 22,781.12.

South Korea's Kospi index was trading 0.04 per cent lower at 2018.45. China's Shanghai index was trading 0.5 per cent higher at 2,327.12.