Equity indices spurt 3 pc, banking stock upbeat

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Feb 1 : Equity benchmark indices jumped by nearly 3 per cent during the afternoon on Monday as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget in Parliament with a strong focus on infrastructure and healthcare sectors.
At 1:15 pm, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 1,376 points or 2.97 per cent at 47,662 while the Nifty 50 ticked up by 386 points or 2.83 per cent to 14,021.
Except for Nifty pharma which dipped marginally, all other sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green with Nifty PSU bank gaining by 5.9 per cent, private bank by 5.8 per cent, financial service by 5.3 per cent and auto by 2.8 per cent.
Among stocks, IndusInd Bank ticked higher by 10.9 per cent to Rs 938.45 per share while ICICI Bank moved up by 10 per cent, State Bank of India by 7 per cent and Axis Bank by 5.9 per cent.
The other major gainers were housing finance major HDFC, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv, Larsen & Toubro and Hindalco.
However, agro-chemicals major UPL lost by 6.8 per cent to Rs 522.05 per share while Dr Reddy's, Cipla, Tech Mahindra and Tata Consultancy Services traded with a negative bias.
Meanwhile, Asian shares tried to rally as Wall Street continued to struggle with doubts about vaccine rollouts and economic recovery.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan recouped early losses to rise by 0.7 per cent.
Japan's Nikkei added 0.8 per cent while Chinese blue chips gained by 0.5 per cent as the country's central bank injected more cash into money markets.