Sensex rises 277 pts; Nifty breaks 11,500 mark

Mumbai: Equity benchmark Sensex darted up for the third consecutive session on Monday, buoyed by robust gains in IT and banking stocks amid a broad upmove in global markets.

TCS soared over 7 per cent after the IT major said it will consider a share buyback proposal later this week.

Starting off on a high note, the 30-share BSE Sensex zoomed to the day's peak at 39,263.85, before ceding some ground to settle at 38,973.70, up 276.65 points or 0.71 per cent.

Likewise, the broader NSE Nifty rose 86.40 points or 0.76 per cent to close at 11,503.35.

TCS was the top performer on the Sensex chart, rallying 7.30 per cent.

In the process, the IT giant became the second Indian firm after Reliance Industries to cross the Rs 10 lakh crore market valuation mark.

Other prominent gainers included Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, IndusInd Bank, HCL Tech, ICICI Bank, HUL, Kotak Bank and HDFC Bank, spurting up to 4.71 per cent.

On the other hand, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto, PowerGrid and ITC were among the major laggards, shedding as much as 2.70 per cent.

Sectorally, the BSE IT index rose 4.06 per cent, followed by teck, metal, healthcare and bankex.In the broader market, the BSE midcap index shed 0.18 per cent, while the smallcap gauge rose 0.38 per cent, underperforming the benchmark.

On the forex market front, the rupee closed 16 paise lower at 73.29 against the US dollar. Global crude oil benchmark Brent was trading nearly 3 per cent higher at $40.41 per

barrel.