MUMBAI: India’s equity benchmarks closed marginally higher on Monday, led by gains in automakers after they announced price cuts following tax reductions, while weakness in IT stocks capped gains.
The NSE Nifty 50 gained 0.13 percent to 24,773.15 and the BSE Sensex added 0.09 percent to 80,787.3. Both indexes rose as much as 0.5 percent during the session.
Nine of the 16 major sectors logged gains. The broader small-caps and mid-caps rose 0.2 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.
The auto index gained 3.3 percent, driven by Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki after they announced the price cuts across vehicle portfolios.
“Goods and services tax rationalisation is a crucial catalyst to simplify compliance and boost consumption in the country, which is the need of the hour,” said Tarun Singh, managing director, Highbrow Securities.