Sensex rises over 350 points, Nifty regains 11,550 level; smallcap stocks outperform after Sebi order

Smallcap stocks were the outperformers today with BSE Smallcap index rising over 2%. The BSE Midcap index advanced 1.18%.

New Delhi: The BSE Sensex and the Nifty opened higher on Monday tracking Asian shares, which moved higher as traders awaited cues from the US central bank expected later in the week. As of 9:17 am, the Sensex was up 321.13 points or 0.83% at 39,175.68 and the Nifty advanced 81.10 points or 0.71% to 11,545.55.  Buying was visible across all the sectors with Nifty Bank, the banking sub-index of NSE, gaining the most at 0.90%. However, smallcap stocks were the outperformer today with BSE Smallcap index rising over 2%.

According to an analysis by financial services house Edelweiss, after market regulator Sebi's new directives for multicap funds, around Rs 12,000 will be shifted from large-caps to mid-caps and about Rs 24,000 crore from large caps to small caps. The market regulator on Friday issued a new directive for multi-cap schemes to allocate a minimum 25% of their portfolio to each of the three categories: large-cap, midcap and small-cap companies and minimum 75% of the funds's AUM should be invested in equities as compared to 65% earlier.

Among Nifty stocks, HCL Tech was the top gainer, up 5.58% followed by Tech Mahindra and TCS, which gained 2.49% and 2.05% respectively. Reliance Industries, Wipro, Zee Entertainment Tata Motors, HDFC, Infosys, HDFC Bank, SBI, Coal India, ONGC, UPL and IndusInd Bank were the other prominent gainers in the Nifty, rising between 0.63%-1.64%.

Meanwhile, Asian Paints was the top loser in Nifty, down 0.96% followed by HUL and BPCL, which fell 0.82% and 0.77% respectively. HDFC Life, Bajaj Finance, Hero MotoCorp, Britannia, Hindalco, Cipla, Nestle, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel were the other losers in the Nifty. 

On Friday, the BSE Sensex closed 14.23 points or 0.04% higher at 38,854.55 and the Nifty settled 15.20 points or 0.13% higher at 11,464.45. Foreign investors bought Indian equities worth Rs 1,176 crore in the cash segment on a provisional basis and bought Rs 335 crore in the futures & options market. Their net long exposure in index futures remained unchanged at 58% as compared to the previous day. Domestic institutions sold Indian equities worth Rs 724 crore in the cash market.

Other Asian shares were mostly positive today. Japan's Nikkei was up 0.56%, Shanghai Composite rose 0.56%, Taiwan Weighted advanced 0.70% while Hang Seng and the Kospi gained 0.51% and 1.16% respectively. US index futures also rose indicating positive opening on the Wall Street today. Dow futures was up 1.05%, S&P 500 futures advanced 1.20% while Nasdaq futures traded with 1.47% gains.