Infosys lifts Sensex 160 points, Nifty closes below 11,600

Equities witnessed a lacklustre trading session on Monday but the rally in Infosys drove benchmark indices higher while broader markets underperformed.

The BSE S & P Sensex closed 160 points higher at 38,897 while the Nifty 50 was up 36 points at 11,588.

At the National Stock Exchange, Nifty IT closed 2.85 per cent higher, mainly due to good Q1 corporate results last week by IT major Infosys. Pharma was up 1.07 per cent while auto gained marginally by 0.3 per cent. All others were in the red with PSU banks dipping 2.6 per cent.

Among stocks, Infosys gained 7.24 per cent to close at Rs 779.40 per share while Sun Pharma closed over 3 per cent higher. UPL, Tech Mahindra and Maruti edged higher with gains ranging from 1.8 to 2.8 per cent.

But the shares of Allahabad Bank closed 7.7 per cent lower after the government-owned bank reported a fraud of Rs 1,775 crore by Bhushan Power and Steel to the Reserve Bank of India.

Bank of India, Canara Bank, Oriental Bank, Punjab National Bank, Indian Bank, and Syndicate Bank also lost between 2 to 3 per cent.

Dewan Housing Finance Corporation closed over 29 per cent down at Rs 48.50 per share after the company reported a net loss of Rs 2,223 crore for the fourth quarter of 2018-19 and a net loss of Rs 1,036 crore for the whole year. Though DHFL said it has withstood intense liquidity pressure in recent months and continues to remain strong, traders were clearly not impressed and resorted to short selling.

Meanwhile, Asian shares advanced after encouraging Chinese data suggested the world's second-biggest economy may be starting to stabilise.

China's second-quarter economic growth slowed to 6.2 per cent in the same period of last -- the weakest pace in at least 27 years -- but separate data showed the country's industrial output and retail sales topped forecasts.