Buoyed by the over 5 per cent jump in the Reliance Industries’ scrip, following its new gas find in the KG D-6 basin, the Sensex rose 326 points to regain 20,000-peak on Monday.

While the Sensex closed at 20031, up 326 points, the Nifty closed at 6,083, up 100 points.

Softening of crude oil prices, with the Nymex futures quoting at $93.49 a barrel, down 0.66 per cent, also contributed to the rise in equities. All broader and sectoral indices also closed in the green.

Analysts said the surge in stocks could also be due to short-covering ahead of Thursday’s monthly derivative expiry on the NSE.

Volatility was down, with the volatility index Vix closing at 17.03, down 3.79 per cent.

Arun Kejriwal, Founder, KRIS Research, said “It is best to be cautious, if not over-cautious as the number of occasions when the markets have moved between 1.5 and two per cent in either direction recently is becoming a major cause for concern in the absence of any major event even in hindsight.”

RIL closed at Rs 826.7 on the NSE, up 5.12 per cent logging a volume of over 43.33 lakh shares and a significantly high delivery percentage of 48.84 per cent. This means, over 21.16 lakh shares would be delivered on Wednesday (T+2 settlement). On the BSE, the scrip closed at Rs 828.25 with over 6.81 lakh shares changing hands of which about 27 per cent would be delivered. FIIs bought Rs 406 crore worth equity in the net while DIIs offloaded equity worth Rs 516 crore. Retail investors on the BSE also were net sellers at Rs 63 crore.

Rupee up

Snapping a six-day losing run, the rupee closed six paise higher at 55.57 against the US dollar on the back of good inflows in equities and dollar selling by some exporters.

raghavendrarao.k@thehindu.co.in

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