Indian shares rose nearly 1.4 per cent on Monday, their second consecutive session of gains, on increased buying by participants led by forecast of a timely monsoon and hopes of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India amid firm European cues.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said that it expects the monsoon rains to hit the southern Kerala coast around May 30, a timely arrival for farmers worried about dry weather from an El Nino weather pattern this year.

According to traders, the government containing the fiscal deficit at 4.00 per cent of the GDP for 2014-15 boosted the market sentiment.Value-buying in recently beaten down blue-chip stocks too helped the sentiment.

The 30-share BSE index Sensex surged 363.30 points or 1.33 per cent to 27,687.30 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty jumped 111.30 points or 1.35 per cent to 8,373.65.

Barring realty, all other BSE sectoral indices ended in the green. Among them, consumer durables index was the star-performer and was up 2.16 per cent, followed by oil & gas 2.09 per cent, healthcare 1.54 per cent and infrastructure 1.43 per cent, while realty index was down 0.2 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were Dr Reddy's 3.48%, GAIL 3.45%, Tata Power 3.08%, HDFC 2.34%, and HDFC Bank 1.92%, while the major losers were Hero MotoCorp 0.31%, NTPC 0.07%, and Coal India 0.04%.

Brokers said pick-up in buying by investors, triggered by forecast of a timely monsoon and expectations of a rate cut by the Reserve bank of India at its policy meet early next month, buoyed the trading sentiment.

A report by SMC Investments and Advisors said: "Asian markets rose as weak economic data seems to have pushed Fed rate hike a notch further. US stocks rose amid weak dollar and rising oil prices whereas stock markets hit multi year highs."

Global markets

European shares rose on Monday, with energy stocks in focus after a rise in oil prices, while the dollar lifted off four-month lows it had reached on concerns over the US economy.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 stocks index opened down but quickly recovered and was last up 0.6 per cent, led higher by commodity stocks.

Asian shares had earlier fallen as investors fretted that weak US data on Friday suggested that growth was slowing in the world’s largest economy, though the US S&P 500 index ended last week at a record closing high.

MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares, excluding Japan, fell 0.7 per cent, though Tokyo’s Nikkei closed 0.8 per cent higher.

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