MUMBAI: Equity benchmark gauges closed 1.7 per cent higher on Monday with banking and financial stocks witnessing substantial gains after a steady decline in fresh Covid-19 cases.
Investors said the impact of second wave lockdowns on economic activity could be limited as compared to last year.
The BSE S&P Sensex closed 848 points or 1.74 per cent higher at 49,581 while the Nifty 50 surged by 245 points or 1.67 per cent to 14,923.
Except for Nifty pharma which slipped marginally, all other sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty priavte bank and PSU bank gaining by 3.8 per cent, financial service by 3.2 per cent, metal by 2.3 per cent and auto by 1.9 per cent.
Among stocks, IndusInd Bank jumped by 7.5 per cent to Rs 958 per share. ICICI Bank was up by 4.4 per cent, HDFC Bank by 3.7 per cent and Axis Bank by 3.4 per cent.
Public sector State Bank of India moved up by 6.6 per cent to close the day at Rs 384.45 per share. Among the other winners were agro-chemicals maker UPL, Hindalco, Tata Motors, Adani Ports and home loan lender HDFC.
However, those which lost were Cipla, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, SBI Life, HDFC Life and Maruti Suzuki.
Meanwhile, Asian share markets were mixed with MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan showing a rise of 0.2 per cent.
Japan's Nikkei lost 0.92 per cent and touched its lowest since early January last week. South Korea's Kospi was down by 0.6 per cent but Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose by 0.59 per cent.