Stock market highlights
A listless session picked pace, albeit mildly, in the fag-end of the session as buying in financial shares joined auto stocks. After oscillating roughly 450 points during the day, the S&P BSE Sensex closed at 59,106, up 115 points or 0.19 per cent. The Nifty50, meanwhile, ended at 17,398, up 38 points or 0.22 per cent.
The broader markets, however, held their gains through the day with the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices, eventually, settling 0.36 per cent and 1.17 per cent higher, respectively.
The better part of the day was spent in the negative zone by benchmarks as they consolidated after Friday's stupendous rally. Besides, higher oil prices, and rising bond yields hurt sentiment.
There were, however, sectoral gainers and losers amid related news flow.
Market movers
The Nifty Auto index jumped 1.5 per cent, led by Hero Moto, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki, and Eicher Motors, as March automobile sales maintained robust momentum.
Gas stocks, meanwhile, dropped up to 6 per cent after the government kept domestic gas prices unchanged at $8.6/mmBtu on a provisional basis from April 2023 to September 2023. The ceiling, however, was reduced marginally to $12.1/mmBtu from $12.5/mmBtu. READ MORE
Shares of upstream oil and gas companies, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India, surged up to 6 per cent on the BSE in Monday's intra-day trade after oil prices rose sharply after OPEC+ announced surprise output cuts. READ MORE
IPO Update :: Avalon Technologies
The company's Rs 865-crore offering was off to a slow start with just 2 per cent subscription till 3:30 PM on day 1 of the offer. Retail portion was subscribed 11 per cent, while NII portion was picked up 1 per cent.
 "Sensex ends choppy day 115 pts up, Nifty near 17,400; OMC, gas stocks slide")
