Sensex Soars 721 Points On Wall Street Cues; Nifty Tops 18,000

(RTTNews) - Indian shares rose sharply on Monday after a sharp slide last week on fears of a global recession and concerns over China's worsening COVID situation.

Positive Wall Street cues offered some support after data showed U.S. inflation cooled further in November.

Other Asian markets followed Wall Street higher while major European markets were closed for Christmas.

The benchmark S&P/BSE Sensex ended the session up 721.13 points, or 1.20 percent, at 60,566.42, while the broader NSE Nifty index settled 207.80 points, or 1.17 percent higher, at 18,014.60.

Buying was seen across the board, barring pharma stocks. Bajaj FinServ, Coal India, Hindalco, IndusInd Bank and SBI jumped 3-4 percent.

Central Bank of India rallied 4.9 percent on fund raising reports.

GPT Infraprojects soared 20 percent after its arm RMS GPT Ghana bagged an order worth Rs 123 crore.

Welspun Corp surged 6.7 percent after commissioning a coke plant in Gujarat.

NDTV added 1.3 percent after founders Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy agreed to sell 27.26 percent out of their remaining 32.26 percent shareholding in the news broadcaster to Adani Group.

Siemens India rose 1.5 percent on bagging a contract from the Indian Railways for the manufacture and maintenance of electric freight locomotives.

Pharma stocks faced selling pressure, with Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Divis Laboratories and Cipla losing 1-2 percent.