Indian markets rallied on Monday with S&P BSE Sensex surging 786 points to 60,746.86 and NSE’s Nifty50 rallying 224 points to close at the 18,011.35 level.

The rally in Indian stock indices continued for the third straight week as they jumped during 10 out of the past 11 sessions. The indices rose on Monday tracking gains from Friday’s US markets amid hopes of slower interest rate hikes coupled with healthy corporate earnings back here in India and the seeming return of foreign funds during the past week. The rally in the markets was backed by stock-specific movements in the auto, bank, metal, and tech sectors.

The S&P BSE MidCap surged over 312 points with JSW Energy, Cummins Ind, Astral, Mindtree, and Torrent Pharma as the most active stocks in the index. BSE LargeCap surged over 90 points as Nykaa, Eicher Motors, Adani Transmission, and Grasim were the most active stocks on the index whereas BSE SmallCap traded in the green, surging 122 points with HCFL, Orient Cement, and Eid Parry being the most active stocks.

Ultra Cement, Eicher Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, and HDFC were the most active stocks on the index whereas Dr. Reddy’s, NTPC, and IndusInd Bank were trading in the red.

Markets during Monday’s session opened in the green while going forward, the markets will take up cues from interest rate decisions by the US Federal Reserve as well as the Bank of England. These decisions will influence global market movement may as well as the Indian markets.

On domestic markets, investors are keeping track of the additional meeting of the Reserve Bank of India, which will meet on Thursday.

At 9.35 am, Sensex traded at 60,541.49 points, up 581.64 points or 0.97 per cent, whereas Nifty traded at 17,960.20 points, up 173.40 points or 0.97 per cent. All the Nifty sectoral indices were in the green this morning, with Nifty IT and Nifty pharma rising the most.

Coming to specific stocks, Tech Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki India, Dr. Reddy’s, Eicher Motors, and Divi’s Laboratories were the top five gainers among the Nifty 50 companies, National Stock Exchange data showed in the morning.

“However, traders may be concerned as data released by the Reserve Bank of India showed India’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves declined USD 3.8 billion to USD524.5 billion for the week ending October 21. Reserves are at their lowest levels since July 2020,” said Mohit Nigam Fund manager and Head – of PMS, Hem Securities.

“The driving force behind the ongoing rally (in Indian stocks) is the strength of the US economy which is indicating a lower probability of an immediate US recession and, more importantly, indications that inflation is plateauing and might show a declining trend soon,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

“The fact that FPIs have turned buyers during the last two days is another positive. However, DIIs might sell at higher levels since valuations are high,” Vijayakumar added.

Meanwhile, the rupee appreciated slightly from the previous close to open trade at 82.37 this morning against the US dollar. On Friday, it closed at 82.47.