Markets stage sharp recovery after five days of fall

Mumbai, Dec 23 (PTI) Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty bounced back sharply on Monday morning after five days of steep decline amid value buying at lower levels and a rally in global markets.

Buying in blue-chip stocks also helped in markets recovery.

The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex jumped 628.34 points to 78,669.93 in early trade. The NSE Nifty surged 219 points to 23,806.50.

From the 30 blue-chip stocks, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank, ITC, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries and Axis Bank were the biggest gainers.

New entrant Zomato and Sun Pharma were the laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading in the positive territory.

Wall Street ended higher on Friday.

In the past five days, the BSE benchmark tanked 4,091.53 points or 4.98 per cent, and the Nifty slumped 1,180.8 points or 4.76 per cent.

Nifty is witnessing a relief rally today after last week’s sell-off, but caution still lingers with FIIs selling, Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 3,597.82 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.47 per cent to USD 73.28 a barrel.

The 30-share BSE benchmark tumbled 1,176.46 points or 1.49 per cent to settle at 78,041.59 on Friday. The Nifty tanked 364.20 points or 1.52 per cent to 23,587.50.