Sensex closes 215 pts up; RIL tops buy list with 6% gains

Indian shares rose by 1% on Monday as better than expected payrolls data in the US and emerging optimism for solution to Eurozone debt crisis aided the rally. Inflow of foreign money too helped Indian equities as the Indian rupee appreciated by 30 paise to 55.45 against the US dollar.

The rally was also on account of hopes of some reforms in the monsoon parliament session. The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 215.03 points or 1.25% to close at 17412.96.

Meanwhile, the 50-share NSE Nifty went up 66.85 points or 1.28% to 5,282.55 led by buying interest banks, capital goods, auto and metals stocks.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries hogged the limelight, rising 5.7% due to sharp rally in crude. WTI crude gained 4.9% on Friday to USD 91.4 a barrel on jobs data and tropical storm Ernesto in Gulf of Mexico. However, state-run fuel retailer BPCL tanked 2.4%.

Mukesh Ambani group company Reliance Industrial Infrastructure jumped nearly 12%. Even Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group's stocks too gained quite smartly; Reliance Mediaworks climbed 20% while Reliance Infrastructure, Reliance Capital, Reliance Communications, Reliance Broadcast Network and Reliance Power were up 2-8%.

Country's largest private sector lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were up 1.5-2% while their rival State Bank of India rose 0.6%. Housing finance company HDFC gained 1.5%.

Top commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors shot up 3.5% and state-owned gas transportation services provider GAIL went up 2.5%.

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro and state-owned power equipment manufacturer BHEL moved up 1.8% each.

Steel producers Sterlite Industries and Tata Steel gained more than 1.8%. India's largest software services exporter TCS went down 0.7% ahead of Cognizant numbers that announced after market hours.

Realty major DLF climbed 1.8% ahead of numbers that will be announced today in evening. Analysts on an average expect the profit after tax to go down by 14.5% year-on-year to Rs 290 crore during the quarter.

Shares of ITC, Dr Reddy's Labs, NTPC and Wipro were down 0.4-0.9%.

The broader markets erased somewhat gains in second half of trade due to profit booking; the BSE Midcap Index was up 0.5% and Smallcap up 0.8%. Advancers outnumbered decliners by 1659 to 1130 on the BSE.

In the second line shares, Puravankara Projects, BOC India, Anant Raj Industries, Fresenius Kabi and Honeywell Automation rallied 5.5-10% whereas DB Corp, Glodyne Tech, City Union Bank, Parsvnath and S Mobility fell 3-8%.

Wockhardt surged over 4% as the company's consolidated net profit rose by 95% year-on-year to Rs 378 crore in the first quarter of financial year 2012-13, but it was complete turnaround as compared to a loss of Rs 191.64 crore in the previous quarter.

Asian markets closed higher with gains between 1% and 2% as US non-farm payrolls increased 1,63,000 as against expectations of 1 lakh while private payrolls rose 1,72,000 as against expectations of 1,10,000 on Friday.

European markets erased early trade losses to hit fresh four-month high. France's CAC was up 0.5% and Germany's DAX rose 0.7% while Britain's FTSE went up 0.2%.