India's Sensex hits record high; Nifty races past 9,700

Asian shares advance after better-than-expected U.S. jobs report.

india trader
Traders eat sweets at a brokerage in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh. REUTERS

Indian shares climbed on Monday, with the benchmark Sensex index hitting an all-time high, led by gains in technology and software exporters.

Technology shares advanced after India's market regulator late Friday banned holders of offshore derivatives tied to the nation's equities from taking unhedged exposure.

The S&P BSE Sensex rose 1.13 percent to a record high of 31,715. The broader NSE Nifty jumped 1.01 percent to 9,763 after trading resumed following a technical glitch.

Sentiment across Asia was upbeat after stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs data reinforced optimism of another rate hike by the Federal Reserve.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 0.5 percent, the most since June 29, after hitting a five-week low Friday. Meanwhile U.S. stocks rebounded from the biggest selloff since May on Friday.

Data on Friday showed U.S. non-farm payrolls jumped by 222,000 jobs last month, beating expectations of a 179,000 gain.

Back home, earnings season is about to kick-start with Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys, country's two biggest software exporters, scheduled to report on July 13 and 14 followed by UltraTech Cement on July 18 and Bajaj Auto on July 20.

All sectoral indices led by technology, IT, realty, PSU, healthcare and bank were in the green, gaining up to 3 percent.

Tata Motors rose 2.5 percent after the sales of its British luxury unit Jaguar Land Rover rose 11 percent in June from last year.

Divi's Laboratories surged 8 percent after the drugmaker said U.S. Food and Drug Administration will lift the import alert on unit II of Visakhapatnam.

Among the laggards, Shriram and IDFC group stocks fell after brokerages termed the merger deal as negative. Shriram Transport Finance fell 3.3 percent, Shriram City Union 5.7 percent while IDFC was down 5.8 percent.

Market breadth was in the favour of gainers, with about 3 stocks advancing to every 1 stock that declined.

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