Buying into select stocks resurfaced in Monday's late afternoon session as the bulls refused to give up their dominance for the fifth session in a row.
Major indices had opened lower in morning trade as investors worked the math on a drastic cut in interest rates by banks on home loans. As a consequence, the top 10 losers on the main index, the Nifty, included nine lenders.
However, the bulls were able to make a comeback as auto, metals, pharma and realty shares saw heavy demand on the first trading day of calendar 2017.
Here are the major events of the day so far:
* Nifty rises for 5th day; index recovers from an intra-day low of 8,137 points. Index trades 5 points higher at 8,190 points.
* Eicher Motors, Tata Steel, UltraTech Cement, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors rose 2.3-3.2% and were among 35 gainers on the Nifty.
* Banks were under pressure. HDFC, Bank of Baroda, State Bank and IndusInd Bank dropped 1.8-3.1% and were among 16 losers on the index.
* State Bank, Bharat Financial and LIC Housing Finance were the top traded shares by value. Maruti and Indiabulls Housing Finance also made it to the most active list by value.
* State Bank, JP Associates and HDIL were among the top traded shares by volume.
* Buyers hunted in every pocket. As a consequence, mid caps, small caps and broader market indices rose between 0.3-1%.
* Realty stocks advanced smartly with their index surging 4.2%. Investors expect lower borrowing costs to propel potential fence sitters to buy property, thereby helping real estate companies reduce their burgeoning inventory.
* Indices tracking the media, pharma, software and metals sectors rose 0.3-1.5%.
* All four banking indices dropped between 0.8-1.8% as interest earnings may fall on reduced lending rates.
* The mood is buoyant on Dalal Street with 1,183 shares rising compared with 417 shares that fell.
