Hectic buying in blue-chip stocks lifts Sensex by 500 points

Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty rebounded sharply on Monday after five days of steep decline amid value buying at lower levels and a rally in global markets.

Besides, hectic buying in blue-chip stocks ITC, HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries also helped in market recovery.

The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex jumped 498.58 points or 0.64 per cent to settle at 78,540.17.

During the day, it soared 876.53 points or 1.12 per cent to  78,918.12.

The NSE Nifty surged 165.95 points or 0.70 per cent to 23,753.45.

From the 30 blue-chip stocks, ITC, Tech Mahindra, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, IndusInd Bank, Titan, State Bank of India and ICICI Bank were the biggest gainers.

New entrant Zomato, Maruti, Nestle, HCL Tech, Bajaj Finserv and Tata Motors were among the laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, and Hong Kong settled in the positive territory while Shanghai ended lower.

In the past five sessions last week, the BSE benchmark tanked 4,091.53 points or 4.98 per cent, and the Nifty slumped 1,180.8 points or 4.76 per cent.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 3,597.82 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.44 per cent to $73.26 a barrel.