Sensex gains 375 points to 37,077, Nifty financial services up 1.7 pc

Equity benchmark indices recouped early losses around noon on Monday despite global fall.

This came after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a slew of measures last week to boost the economy, including roll-back of an increase in surcharge on the income tax outgo of foreign investors.

At 12:15 pm, the BSE S & P Sensex was up by 375 points at 37,077 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 104 points to 10,933.

But the optimism over Sitharaman's bid to boost auto and infrastructure sectors along with capital markets was tempered with caution amid renewed trade war escalation between the United States and China along with fresh forecasts of a slowdown in global economic growth.

At the National Stock Exchange, sectoral indices were mixed Nifty financial services gaining by 1.7 per cent and PSU banks by 1.6 per cent. But metals slipped sharply by over 3 per cent while auto was down by half a per cent.

Among stocks, Indiabulls Housing Finance gained by 4.1 per cent, HDFC by 3.2 per cent, Adani Ports by 2.4 per cent and Bajaj Finance by 2.3 per cent.

The other prominent gainers were Bajaj Finserv, Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank, ITC and HDFC Bank.

However, steel majors were down with Tata Steel showing a loss of 5.2 per cent. JSW Steel slipped by 4.2 per cent, Vedanta by 3.7 per cent and Hindalco by 3 per cent. Auto major Hero MotoCorp also lost by 2.8 per cent.

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.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan still shed 2 per cent while Japan's Nikkei lost 2.1 per cent. Shanghai Composite fell by 1.3 per cent as China's yuan slumped to a fresh 11-year low against the dollar.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled by over 3 per cent due to continuing anti-government protests amid an economic slump.