Sensex climbs 793 points amid relief measures, likely US-China trade talks

Equity benchmark indices erased early losses on Monday and traded with strong gains in the afternoon trade as investors awaited more government measures to perk up the domestic economy.

The market sentiment got a boost following China's stand that it opposes a trade escalation with the United States, and is ready to enter a dialogue in a bid to reverse the slowdown in global economic growth.

When the closing bell rang, the BSE S & P Sensex was up by 793 points or 2.16 per cent at 37,494 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 229 points or 2.11 per cent to 11,058.

At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), all sectoral indices except for Nifty metal were in the green. Nifty financial services gained by 4 per cent, realty by 3.7 per cent and private banks by 3.7 per cent. But metals slipped by 0.97 per cent due to US-China trade tariff issues and their impact on global commodity prices.

The rollback of surcharge proposed in the Budget on foreign portfolio investors and measures to prop-up the economy was largely welcomed by market experts, who now expect another round of announcements shortly -- especially for the labour-intensive real estate sector.

Among the prominent gainers were Adani Ports which climbed up by 5.8 per cent and HDFC by 5.2 per cent. Private lenders like Yes Bank, ICICI Bank, and HDFC Bank were up between 4.4 and 5 per cent each.

Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv gained by 5 and 4.2 per cent respectively while UltraTech Cement showed a gain of 5 per cent. Larsen & Toubro and Zee Entertainment were up by 3.7 per cent each.

However, steel companies were down with JSW Steel showing a loss of 3 per cent, Vedanta by 2.3 per cent, Tata Steel by 2.1 per cent and Hindalco by 1 per cent. Sun Pharma, Wipro, Reliance Industries and Tata Motors were the other prominent losers.

Meanwhile, Asian shares sank as US President Donald Trump on Friday imposed an additional 5 per cent duty on 550 billion dollars of Chinese goods in the latest trade war escalation by the world's two largest economies.

Markets later pared some losses after Trump said China had contacted Washington overnight to say it wanted to return to the negotiating table. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said Beijing strongly opposes trade protectionism and blockade in the field of new technologies.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan still shed 2 per cent while Japan's Nikkei lost 2.2 per cent. Shanghai Composite fell by 1.1 per cent as China's yuan slumped to a fresh 11-year low against the dollar.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled by 1.9 per cent due to continuing anti-government protests amid an economic slump.