The equity benchmarks extended gains in mid-afternoon trade. At 14:21 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 398.17 points or 1% at 40,381.15. The Nifty 50 index added 111.25 points or 0.95% to 11,873.70.

Hopes of fresh US stimulus package before the election and expectation of coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year boosted investors sentiment.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 0.35% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.30%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1409 shares rose and 1130 shares fell. A total of 163 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

India's foreign exchange reserves jumped by $5.86 billion in the week ended October 9 to hit a fresh high of $551.5 billion. As COVID-19 pandemic led to a sharp decline in imports of crude oil and gold and Indian companies attracted huge foreign direct investments, the forex reserves swelled by $75 billion since lockdown announcement in last week of March.

Numbers to Track:

In the foreign exchange market, the partially convertible rupee rose to 73.37 compared with its previous closing 73.35.

The yield on 10-year benchmark federal paper rose to 5.937% compared with previous closing of 5.935% in the previous trading session.

MCX Gold futures for 04 December 2020 settlement added 0.39% to Rs 50,746.

In the commodities market, Brent crude for December 2020 settlement lost 12 cents to $42.81 a barrel. The contract declined 0.53% or 23 cents to settle at $42.93 in the previous trading session.

Buzzing Segment:

The Nifty Auto index fell 1.25% to 7,859.60. The index rose 0.30% on Friday.

Eicher Motors (down 3.47%), Hero MotoCorp (down 3.25%), TVS Motor Company (down 2.35%), Bajaj Auto (down 2.19%), Mahindra & Mahindra (down 1.52%), Ashok Leyland (down 0.73%) and Maruti Suzuki (down 0.53%) edged lower.

Stocks in Spotlight:

IndusInd Bank rose 3.25% to Rs 627.80. The bank said that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had imposed a monetary penalty of Rs 4.5 crore on the bank for non-compliance with certain directions issued by the country's central bank.

Cosmo Films spurted 7.16% to Rs 457.90 after the company said its board will consider a share buyback on Monday, 26 October 2020.

ISGEC Heavy Engineering shed 0.95% to Rs 234. The company has won an order for setting up a 11.5 MW waste to energy (WTE) plant for the Karnataka Power Corporations (KPCL) to be set up in Bidadi, an industrial hub located 32 km from Bengaluru. The plant will have a capacity to use 600 tonnes of segregated waste per day to produce power.