Sensex ends 70 points higher, Nifty nears 24,800

Mumbai, Sep 8 The Indian equity indices ended the session slightly up on Monday, amid buying in auto and metal stocks. The domestic indices soared high in the early trade, boosted by the GST reforms announcement, optimism around the ease in India-US relationship, and the rate cut announced by major Indian automakers.

However, the indices lost most of their gains in the last trading hours due to a sell-off in IT heavyweights and profit booking.

Sensex closed at 80,787.30, up 76.54 points or 0.09 per cent. The 30-share index opened the session with a decent gap-up at 80,904.40 against the last session's closing of 80,710.76, buoyed by GST rationalisation and bullish momentum in auto and metal stocks. The index jumped around 400 points to hit an intraday high at 81,171.38.

Nifty settled the session at 24,773.15, up 32.15 points or 0.13 per cent.

"The domestic market failed to sustain its early gains as a late-session sell-off reflected the prevailing 'buy-on-dips, sell-on-rallies' strategy, highlighting investor caution," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited.

Auto and ancillary stocks continued to rally on expectations of demand recovery following GST rate cuts, while IT remained weak amid global uncertainties. Globally, sentiment improved after soft US jobs data raised hopes of a Fed rate cut in September, Nair added.

Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra, Adani Airports, Bajaj FinServ, Ultratech Cement, Tata Steel, HDFC Bank and BEL were the top gainers from the Sensex basket. While Trent, Asian Paints, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, PowerGrid, TCS, Sun Pharma, L&T, NTPC and Bharti Airtel settled lower.

The majority of sector indices settled in green. Nifty Auto soared 868.60 points or 3.30 per cent, Nifty Fin Services jumped 53 points or 0.21 per cent, and Nifty Bank escalated 72 points or 0.13 per cent. Meanwhile, Nifty IT fell 325 points or 0.94 per cent amid persistent selling.

Broader indices followed the trend as well. Nifty Small Cap 100 settled 29 points or 0.16 per cent higher, Nifty Midcap 100 surged 285 points or 0.50 per cent, and Nifty 100 escalated 45 points or 0.18 per cent.

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