Shares of Infosys – India's second-largest IT software services exporter by sales – rose by more than 8 percent on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Monday after the company's upbeat quarterly and full-year results, in addition to the guidance for the current financial year that is higher than the industry average forecast by Nasscom.
The stock soared 8.17 percent during the day, but later shed gains to close at Rs. 1,238.80, up 5.70 percent from its previous close. The S&P BSE Sensex closed at 25,816, a gain of 190 points, or 0.74 percent, while the NSE Nifty settled at 7,915, up 64 points, or 0.82 percent.
The Infosys-driven Sensex rally was supported by Cipla, Bharti Airtel and Lupin. Stocks that dragged the index down included Hero Motocorp, State Bank of Indian and GAIL (India).
The Infosys rally did not rub off on TCS, which will be declaring its fourth quarter results on Monday. Wipro closed almost flat at Rs. 589.15.
The BSE S&P Information Technology index closed with a gain of 3.09 percent, as mid-cap IT stocks such as Mindtree, NIIT, Mphasis and KPIT rose in a range of 3.31 percent to 6.22 percent.
Shares of state-owned National Aluminium Company spurted 9.71 percent to close at Rs. 45.20 after the company informed the BSE that the company would consider buyback of shares at its board meeting to be held on Friday.
FMCG stocks continued their rally on positive monsoon forecast by the Indian Metereological Department last week.
The S&P BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods rose 1.07 percent; on the NSE, the Nifty FMCG rose 1.04 percent.
On the NSE, the biggest sectoral index gainer was Nifty Realty that rose 4.77 percent, followed by Nifty IT.
