Sensex fell to 871 points; Nifty tank below 14,650

The equity benchmark Sensex gained 871 points on Monday, following a sell-off in financial stocks.

After falling more than 1,400 points earlier in the day, the 30-share BSE index surpassed some losses to end at 8,70.51 points, or 1.74%, at 49,159.32. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty rose 229.55 points, or 1.54%, to close at 14,637.80 points.

Bajaj Finance topped the Sensex pack by nearly 6%, followed by IndusInd Bank, SBI, M&M, Axis Bank, Bajaj Auto and ICICI Bank.

On the other hand, HCL Tech, TCS and Infosys were among the beneficiaries.

“The market saw a huge sell-off today as India’s second wave of COVID-19 is getting bigger than anticipated and is expected to ruin the pace of economic recovery. The higher valuation raised further concerns as a possible decline in Q1FY22 earnings. ” Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

A policy decision in the upcoming MPC announcement and Q4 earnings will define market volatility in the coming days.

The rise in COVID-19 cases in India is a big reminder that there are still recovery challenges, said Lalitabh Srivastava, AVP Research, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.

This indicates a consolidation trend in terms of the increase in provisional numbers of major banks, but encouraging performance on the deposit and CASA front, he said.

Elsewhere in Asia, Seoul and Tokyo ended on a positive note. Markets in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Australia were closed for the holidays.

Stock exchanges in Europe also closed.

Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading down 2.20% at US $ 63.43 per barrel.