The Sensex surged over 900 points and the Nifty moved above 23,300 in early trade on Monday as investors responded to strong earnings from Reliance Industries, softer crude oil prices and buying by foreign investors. Reliance led the rally with gains of over 6 per cent after posting a record quarterly profit, driven by its oil-to-chemicals and telecom businesses. Other major gainers included NTPC, Tata Steel, Power Grid, Maruti Suzuki and SBI. Brent crude fell around 3 per cent to $110 per barrel, offering some relief amid concerns over elevated energy costs. Foreign institutional investors had bought shares worth Rs 3,598.54 crore in the previous session. However, Sun Pharma, Tech Mahindra, Titan and Infosys were among the stocks trading in the red.
Across Asia, markets were largely higher, with South Korea, Japan, China and Hong Kong recording gains. The positive trend followed a difficult session on Wall Street on Friday, when the Nasdaq fell 2.8 per cent as investors grew wary of the massive AI investments planned by leading US technology companies. The decline in crude prices, meanwhile, reflected hopes of progress in diplomatic efforts involving the US and Iran.
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