Indian equity benchmarks showed robust gains, rising to one-month highs during the Muhurat trading hour on Monday to mark the beginning of the Hindu Samvat year 2079.

Investors place bets on the exchange systems available between 6.15 pm to 7.15 pm, following their predictions of what stocks would be profitable and auspicious. Many traders think that profits made during “muhurat,” which is Hindi for “auspicious,” promise wealth and prosperity in the coming year.

The 30-share BSE Sensex index rose 524.51 points, or 0.88 per cent, to close at 59,831.66, and the broader NSE Nifty-50 index advanced 162.15 points, or 0.92 per cent, to end at the first session of the beginning of Hindu Samvat year 2079 at 17,738.45.

Nestle India, ICICI Bank, L&T, SBI, HDFC, HDFC Bank, and Dr. Reddy’s were notable gainers on the Sensex, spiking up to 2.92 percent. Only two stocks, Hindustan Unilever and Kotak Mahindra Bank, closed in the negative, each losing up to 3.05 percent.

Brokers said that once investors started using their new books during the first session of Samvat 2079, buying activity increased.

Sasken, up around 15 per cent initially , Borosil Renewables, which increased by over 5 per cent, and Tejas Networks, which increased by nearly 6 per cent, were some of the BSE stocks that saw the highest activity during the hour.

Nestle India, HDFC Bank, Berger Paint, and Grasim were the top-performing companies on the BSE LargeCap index, which rose 56.50 points. IDBI, Federal Bank, JSW Energy, and Natco Pharma were the most active stocks on the BSE MidCap index.

The most active stocks on Nifty were Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, Asian Paints, Axis Bank, and Tata Steel. Nifty Bank did admirably, gaining 525 points.

“Even though Samvat 2078 ended with marginal negative returns, the overarching feature of the year gone by was India’s distinct outperformance. While the MSCI World Index and MSCI Emerging Market Index fell by 23 per cent and 33 per cent respectively, Nifty hugely outperformed with a minor cut of only 3 per cent,” V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, told PTI.

“This outperformance in a year of a war in Europe and rising inflation and interest rates in the developed world reflects Rising India’s resilience,” he added.

Ajay Devgn, a Bollywood actor, rang the first bell of the Muhurat hour. Girish Joshi, Head of the BSE’s Listing Business, Sameer Patil, Chief Belief Officer, and Nayan Mehta, the Chief Financial Officer, also attended the occasion.

The Indian stock markets were closed on Monday for trade on the occasion of Diwali instead of their regularly scheduled trading hours.

Both Indian equity benchmarks had risen on Friday to extend gains for the sixth straight session, defying a broader global risk assets’ sell-off.

On the global markets, UK bonds surged after Rishi Sunak was set to be Britain’s new Prime Minister after Penny Mordaunt pulled out of the race on Monday.

Investors anticipate that Mr Sunak would restore credibility to economic policymaking and assist in calming the nation’s unsettled markets.

World stocks on Monday were mixed, with developed market equities up and a decline in emerging market shares, mostly due to a significant sell-off in China.

Chinese blue-chip stocks fell about 3 per cent. Comparatively, Hong Kong shares fell 6.4 per cent, the most in a single day since the financial crisis, following Xi Jinping’s record-breaking third term as President and the selection of a top executive body stacked with his supporters.

“Market sentiment could remain cautious near-term on China, on concerns of a shift of focus toward more state control versus a market-driven approach under the new leadership team,” Xiaojia Zhi, the Chief China Economist at Credit Agricole CIB, told Bloomberg. “The exit path from zero-Covid is not yet clear.”

Chinese economic data that was delayed last week and published Monday showed a mixed recovery, with unemployment rising and retail sales weakening despite a pickup in growth.

On Monday, news that the Federal Reserve was debating when to lower interest rates and maybe announce a move back at its November meeting helped to substantially extend the stocks recovery that had begun late on Friday on Wall Street.

The pace of tightening will be the main topic of discussion for any policy decisions made at the November meeting, according to Fed policymakers Mary Daly of the San Francisco Fed and James Bullard of the St. Louis Fed.

“What this means for the markets is that the rates and FX markets could now become more sensitive to incoming economic data and any evidence of financial market stress,” Derek Halpenny, Head of Research at MUFG, told Reuters.

The STOXX 600 rose on the day as European indices advanced ahead of a week dominated by earnings. 

As investors wait for the upcoming round of earnings from some of the biggest corporations in the world, US futures rose. Treasury yields fell, but the dollar rose.

Investors’ attention will be divided this week between the direction of US interest rates and the profits of mega-cap technology companies, which are one of the main drivers of the S&P 500’s profit growth.

This week, the focus would be on the earnings of the five largest tech companies by revenue — Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta Platforms — which were expected to record the worst decline in profitability in three years, according to data by Bloomberg.

“It’s clear demand is slowing, but so far we’ve seen pockets of tech like software, cloud computing still being quite resilient,” said Laura Cooper, a Senior Investment Strategist at BlackRock International, on Bloomberg TV. 

“We will be watching for any signs of cracks coming through that could put a dent in some of these earnings expectations.”