Sensex jumps 249 pts, Nifty above 17,320; Dow futures up 289 pts

Key equity barometers extended gains and hit fresh intraday high in afternoon trade. Gains were supported by private banks and auto shares. Investors` risk appetite improved after India`s private weather forecaster, Skymet, said that it expects the upcoming Monsoon to be `normal`.

At 13:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 249.08 points or 0.43% at 58,082.05. The Nifty 50 index gained 52.15 points or 0.3% at 17,328.45.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.11% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index slipped 1.06%.

The market breadth was weak. On the BSE, 899 shares rose and 2486 shares fell. A total of 152 shares were unchanged.

The Dow Jones index futures were up 289 points. US stock market is closed on Monday for a holiday.

Preliminary Monsoon Forecast Guidance for 2022:

Skymet, India`s private weather forecasting solutions company, expects the upcoming Monsoon to be `normal`. Skymet intends to release a detailed report on the prospects of Monsoon 2022 in April.

Skymet has been predicting Monsoon since 2012, except in 2020 when it abstained for strategic reasons.

"Monsoon has large inter-annual fluctuations in its arrival, intensity, duration, and withdrawal. It is rather early to decode all these aspects at this stage. However, there are precursors to get an early glimpse and gauge its health during the four-month-long season. The last two Monsoon seasons have been driven by back-to-back La Nina events, which has started shrinking now. It also means that Monsoon 2022 is going to be a devolving La Nina to start with and turn neutral later," it said in a statement.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Shree Cement (up 2.28%), ICICI Bank (up 1.85%), Infosys (up 1.73%), Wipro (up 1.72%) and Tata Motors (up 1.44%) were top Nifty gainers.

Hindalco Industries (down 1.87%), UPL (down 1.45%), Divi`s Laboratories (down 1.37%), TCS (down 1.22%) and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (down 1.11%) were major Nifty losers.

Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 0.33%. Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio), the subsidiary of RIL will land multi-terabit India-Asia-Xpress (IAX) undersea cable system in Hulhumale, Maldives. The high capacity and high-speed IAX system will connect Hulhumale` directly with World`s major internet hubs in India and Singapore.

Capri Global Capital rose 0.88%. The company said it plans to enter the gold loan business and it will launch this business in the first half of the financial year 2022-23. The company aims to build a gold loan book size of Rs 8,000 crore and expand its network with 1500 branch locations over the next five years.

Power Finance Corporation (PFCL) rose 0.76%. Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India sold 5.35 crore equity shares or 2.028% stake of PFCL between 1 November 2017 and 17 February 2022. Post transaction, LIC has decreased its shareholding in PFCL to 5.069%.

White Organic Retail hit an upper circuit limit of 5% at Rs 990 after the company said its board will consider bonus share issue on 28 February 2022.

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