By Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran
(Reuters) – India’s benchmark Nifty 50 reversed its year-to-date losses on Monday after a six-day winning run, as foreign investors turning buyers and bargain-hunting opportunities boosted sentiment.
The NSE Nifty 50 rose 1.32% to close at 23,658.35, while the BSE Sensex added 1.4% to 77,984.38. The Nifty is up 0.06% for the year while the Sensex is down 0.2%.
“The fact that Nifty has erased its losses in 2025 so far indicate that the worst is over and that the markets have withstood the drop,” said Narendra Solanki, head of research at Anand Rathi.
Data signalling cooling inflation and improving industrial production has helped sentiment, with investors resorting to bargain hunting ahead of the earnings season, analysts said.
The Nifty 50 and Sensex have climbed 5.6% each in the six sessions, but are still down about 10% from record highs hit late-September.
The foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), who have been persistent sellers in India since late-September, were buyers in three of the last four sessions.
Heavyweight financials, where FPIs have the highest exposure, have led the rally. The index rose 2% on Monday, contributing 58% to the Nifty’s gains.
Kotak Mahindra Bank jumped 4.7% to the highest since October 2021 after the appointment of Bhavnish Lathia as new chief technology officer.
The sharp rally has also spurred some caution. The volatility index rose to 13.7% – its biggest jump since January 6.
“Because the market has rallied so much in a short period of time, to counter the risk (of correction) some hedging activity would have happened,” said Sahaj Agrawal, head of research, derivatives at Kotak Securities.
All the 13 major sectors logged gains. The broader, more domestically focussed small-caps and mid-caps rose 1.1% and 1.3%, respectively.
Among individual stocks, the two heaviest Nifty 50 stocks Reliance and HDFC Bank rose about 2% and 1.7%, respectively.
Automaker SML Isuzu gained 4.5% on report that Mahindra & Mahindra is in talks to buy the entire controlling stake.
(This story has been corrected to say that the small-cap and mid-cap indexes rose 1.3% and 1.1%, respectively, in paragraph 11)
(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran; Editing by Rashmi Aich, Mrigank Dhaniwala, Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Eileen Soreng)
