Sensex rises 1300 points, Nifty up at 18,053 | Top performing shares
India Today
SE Nifty 50 index closed 2.2 per cent or 382.95 points higher at 18,053.40, and the S&P BSE Sensex rose 2.25 per cent or 1,335.05 points to 60,611.74.
The Sensex and Nifty rose on Monday to close at a near three-month high, buoyed by a surge in India's largest private lender HDFC Bank and mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp after the companies said they were merging in a $40 billion deal.
The NSE Nifty 50 index closed 2.2 per cent or 382.95 points higher at 18,053.40, and the S&P BSE Sensex rose 2.25 per cent or 1,335.05 points to 60,611.74.
HDFC Ltd gained 9.3 per cent, hitting its highest since late November, while HDFC Bank rose about 10 per cent to a level not seen since mid-October.
The Nifty bank index rose 4 per cent and the finance index surged 4.6 per cent.
The market movement is largely due to the "unexpected announcement" of the merger, said Saurabh Jain, assistant vice president at SMC Securities.
"This is a very positive news in the sense the foreign institutional investors holding will increase after the merger," Jain said.
Both HDFC and HDFC Bank were major laggards last year, gaining 1.1 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively, compared with a 13.5 per cent rise in the Nifty bank index.