Sensex, Nifty Soar Nearly 4% On India-Pak Ceasefire

(RTTNews) - Indian shares rallied on Monday, with benchmark indexes Sensex and Nifty posting their best intraday session since June 5 last year, as easing geopolitical and trade tensions helped increase investors' appetite for risk.

Tensions between India and Pakistan de-escalated after both sides reached an understanding to stop all firings and military actions on land, air and sea, with immediate effect on Saturday.

The Line of Control (LoC) and border areas remained "largely peaceful", the Indian Army said today.

Air Marshal AK Bharti, while addressing a press briefing, said that all of India's air defense systems are operational and ready for "future missions if need be". "All our military bases and equipment are on alert," he said, adding that India can strike at will if the situation arises.

Signs of easing U.S.-China trade tensions also calmed investors' nerves. The U.S. and China have issued a joint statement post their tariff-related talks over the weekend in Geneva.

Accordingly, both nations have announced a temporary rollback of trade levies for an initial 90-day period.

Following two days of negotiations, the combined 145 percent U.S. duties on most Chinese imports will now be reduced to 30 percent, including the rate linked to fentanyl.

In return, China will be reducing tariffs on U.S. goods from 125 percent to 10 percent. The easing is effective from May 14.

The benchmark 30-share BSE Sensex soared 2,975 points, or 3.74 percent, to 82,429.90, while the broader NSE Nifty index closed up 916.70 points, or 3.82 percent, at 24,924.70.

The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indexes rallied 3.9 percent and 4.2 percent, respectively.

The market breach was strong on the BSE, with 3,541 shares rising on the BSE while 579 shares declined and 134 shares ended unchanged.

Buying was seen across the board, with IT stocks leading the surge. Infosys, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra and TCS soared 5-8 percent.

Among other prominent gainers, Tata Steel, Eternal, ICICI Bank, NTPC, Axis Bank, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finance, Adani Ports, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra and Bajaj FinServ surged 4-6 percent.

Sun Pharma tumbled 3.4 percent ahead of the announcement of a new U.S. pharma pricing policy aimed at lowering the cost of U.S. prescription drug costs.

IndusInd Bank plunged 3.6 percent as Moody's downgraded the private sector lender's standalone credit profile to 'ba2', citing internal control lapses and governance issues.