Indian shares rose for the second consecutive session on Monday, led by metals and mining firms such as Tata Steel on expectations that the Government would pass executive orders to ease the land acquisition rules and auction minerals such as iron ore.

The Cabinet will meet later in the day to discuss the executive orders, called ordinance, Government officials said.

Any new measures would come after the Government had last week passed orders to let foreign firms raise their stakes in insurance ventures and allow commercial mining of coal.

Gains were also helped by a rally in US share markets on Friday and stronger Asian stocks on Monday.

The BSE benchmark Sensex ended higher by 153.95 points or 0.57 per cent at 27,395.73 and the NSE index Nifty ended up 45.6 points or 0.56 per cent at 8,246.30.

Metals stocks gained with Tata Steel closing 1.5 per cent higher.

Among other blue-chips, Oil and Natural Gas Corp ended 0.7 per cent higher after crude oil prices recovered from multi-year lows.

Except banking, all other BSE sectoral indices ended in the green with metal, auto, consumer durables and healthcare indices driving the uptrend. Among them, metal index was up 2.36 per cent, followed by auto 1.5 per cent, consumer durables 1.02 per cent and healthcare 0.87 per cent. Only banking index was down 0.15 per cent.

Major Sensex gainers were SSLT 3.81%, Hindalco 3.22%, Coal India 2.22%, Tata Motors 2.04% and Hero MotoCorp 1.86%, while the major losers were Bharti Airtel 0.8%, ICICI Bank 0.46%, M&M 0.27%, Axis Bank 0.21% and SBIN 0.08%.

Early trade

Rising for the second straight session, the benchmark BSE Sensex spurted over 265 points in early trade led by gains in metal, realty and auto stocks amid a firm trend in other Asian markets.

The 30-share index, which had gained 33.17 points in the previous session, rallied 265.47 points or 0.97 per cent to 27,507.25.

Also, the broad-based Nifty of the National Stock Exchange moved up by 78.45 points or 0.95 per cent to 8,279.15.

Brokers' comment

Brokers said revival of buying by foreign funds, though selective on the Indian bourses after remaining net sellers and buying by retail investors, buoyed the trading sentiment here.

Besides, a firm trend in other Asian markets on reports that China had unveiled fresh measures to boost the economy too had a positive impact, they said.

European shares

European shares were set to open higher on Monday, with futures for the Euro STOXX 50 equity index, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC up by between 0.2 per cent and 0.6 per cent at 0707 GMT.

A presidential vote in Greece will decide whether the country goes to snap elections, which could bring the leftwing Syriza party to power and derail an international bailout. Voting is due to start at midday (1000 GMT), with the result likely around an hour later.

Asian shares

Asian stocks tip-toed higher on Monday, following fresh gains on Wall Street, while the euro wallowed near 28-month lows versus the dollar on nervousness ahead of a vote in the Greek Parliament that could result in snap elections.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.1 per cent. Tokyo's Nikkei climbed 0.4 per cent and Australian shares rose 0.6 per cent.

The Dow and S&P 500 both closed at new record highs on Friday after a broad rally.

The euro stood little changed at $1.2173, not far from its lowest since August 2012, at $1.2165, hit the previous week.

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