Bolstered by HDFC merger deal bulls pull Sensex to 60K mark

Mumbai: The Sensex vaulted 1,335 points while the Nifty shot past the 18,000-mark on Monday, fuelled by index heavyweights HDFC twins which soared almost 10 per cent after announcing corporate India's biggest merger.

India's largest housing finance company HDFC Ltd will merge with the country's top private lender HDFC Bank to create a banking behemoth with a combined

balance sheet of about Rs 17.87 lakh crore.

The transaction is expected to be completed by the second or third quarter of FY24. Once the deal is effective, HDFC Bank will be 100 per cent owned by public shareholders, and existing shareholders of HDFC will own 41 per cent of the bank, the companies said in a pre-market filing.

The announcement triggered robust buying in these two counters as well as other banking and financial stocks. FMCG, IT and metal stocks too saw heavy demand.

Investors turned wealthier by more than Rs 4.5 lakh crore on Monday as the domestic equity market rallied over 2 per cent on the proposed merger deal.

The 30-share BSE Sensex darted up 1,335.05 points or 2.25 per cent to close at an over two-month high of 60,611.74.

Likewise, the broader NSE Nifty jumped 382.95 points or 2.17 per cent to 18,053.40.

HDFC Bank and HDFC led the Sensex gainers' chart, advancing 9.97 per cent and 9.30 per cent, respectively.

The other gainers included Kotak Bank, HUL, L&T, IndusInd Bank, Sun Pharma and Tata Steel.

Only two names closed in the red — Infosys and Titan, slipping up to 1.05 per cent.

All BSE sectoral indices mustered gains, led by finance (4.25 per cent), bankex (3.45 per cent), power (3 per cent), utilities (2.93 per cent) and capital goods (1.79 per cent).