The stock market rallied for the fourth consecutive session on Monday with Nifty hitting an eight-month high at 25,160 intraday. Buying was seen across the sectors, barring real estate stocks.

At close, the Sensex was up 256.22 points or 0.31% at 82,445.21, and the Nifty was up 100.15 points or 0.4% at 25,103.20. Nifty Midcap index added 1% and Smallcap index rose 1.2%.

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The overall market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms rose to ₹455 lakh crore from ₹451 lakh crore in the previous session. On Nifty50, 39 stocks ended higher with the top performers being Jio Financial Services (3.89%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (3.25%) and Bajaj Finance (2.69%). On the losing side, the shares of Eternal down by 1.86%, ICICI Bank down by 1.73% and Titan Company down by 0.73% were the top losers.

In terms of sectoral performance, barring Nifty Realty which was down by 0.14%, all sectoral indices ended higher. Nifty PSU Bank was up 1.52%, Private Bank was up 1.03%, Oil & Gas up by 1.04% and IT was up 1%. Nifty Bank and Financial Services indices rose 0.46% and 0.54%, respectively.

The shares of public sector banks strongly surged after RBI announced a cut in repo rate last Friday. Bank of India shares jumped nearly 4%, while Bank of Maharashtra gained over 3%.

Indian Bank and Indian Overseas Bank shares were up over 2% each, while those of Punjab National Bank (PNB), Canara Bank, Punjab & Sind Bank, Central Bank and Union Bank of India were up over 1% each.

Further, as many as 133 stocks hit their upper circuits in intraday trade on the NSE. These included Coffee Day Enterprises, Jaiprakash Associates, Somany Ceramics, Capri Global Capital and Reliance Infrastructure.

On the other hand, 54 stocks, including Nirman Agri Genetics, Dynamic Services & Security, Power & Instrumentation (Gujarat), Best Agrolife and Grand Continent Hotels, hit their lower circuits.

Notably, in the last four sessions, the Sensex and the Nifty 50 have jumped more than 2% each, and investors have got richer by about Rs 12 lakh crore. Positive global cues amid expectations that the US-China and US-India trade deals were near also influenced market sentiment.