City-wise, Delhi NCR was the only metro to report a rise in hiring activity in April.
Tata Steel, SBI, Infosys and L&T were among the top gainers for the day.
The HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index for the manufacturing industry climbed from 49.6 in October to 51.3 in November on the back of a rebound in new orders and output.
Investors turn their attention to export-driven sectors.
Sharp fall in capital goods production and manufacturing activity also dented sentiments.
'The new government will have to contend with slowing economic growth, weak private investment, anaemic exports and vulnerable external imbalances, a stressed financial system, mounting fiscal pressures (including high government debt-to-GDP ratios) and an exceptionally bad employment situation,' says Shankar Acharya, former chief economic adviser to the Government of India.
E-commerce firms like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra and others witnessed successful festive season sales this year, Experts say e-commerce adoption in the country is accelerating by multiple years or what it would have looked like in 2025.
According to technical analysts, the Nifty could trade in the range between 7,400 and 7,700.
Stock prices is due to valuation expansion
Index heavyweights ITC was the top gainer along with RIL and HDFC
Mr Prabhu has a big challenge ahead in implementing trade reforms to regain the lost export momentum, says Jayanta Roy.
It has been a difficult year for the world's second-largest economy.
'India's economy is growing faster compared to the developed economies of the world.' 'More importantly, it is growing faster compared to most of the developing economies.' 'The monsoon is not the only thing that drives the rural economy and certainly not the national economy.' 'It is too simplistic to reduce everything to the monsoon.'
It is mind-boggling to find our prime minister putting exports on the back-burner, says Jayanta Roy.
A comprehensive solution involves a complete overhaul of our education and training model.
The 30-share Sensex, after opening on a strong footing, continued its upward march to hit an all-time high of 35,827.70. The NSE Nifty also hit a record intra-day high of 10,975.10, before finishing at 10,966.20, up 71.50 points.
Lower inflation, FCNR(B) outflows likely to influence central bank decision
The new numbers did not apparently pass consistency checks with production, inputs, or movements in the National Stock Exchange.
Observing that the economic recovery was not yet fully entrenched, the RBI Governor said recovery is likely to be gradual.
Why are investors gung-ho about State Bank? asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Over to the government how they manage the uncertainty of monsoon and revive spending in order to entice RBI for another round of rate cuts
Top losers in the Sensex pack included M&M, SBI, Yes Bank, Asian Paints, HDFC, Tata Steel and L&T, shedding up to 2.55 per cent. The broader NSE Nifty settled 79.80 points, or 0.72 per cent, down at 10,996.10.
Onions had the highest inflation rate among all major commodities.
The NITI Aayog's vice-chairman's charge holds ground.
Capital goods shares continued to trade firm in late noon despite weak market trend on the back of encouraging core sector growth in February.
Among Sensex constituents, Vedanta fell 3.40 per cent, followed by SBI 3.17 per cent, Yes Bank 3.11 per cent, Axis Bank 1.68 per cent, ONGC 1.60 per cent, Power Grid 1.52 per cent and HDFC 1.48 per cent.
'The belief that FDI will shift from China appears to be a strategy of politicians to keep the media busy, chasing irrelevant news to ward off pressure and questions about the government's plans to deal with COVID,' observes Debashis Basu.
NSE Nifty, after shuttling between 10,809.60 and 10,725.90, finished 30.95 points, or 0.29 per cent lower at 10,741.10.
Asian markets were trading mixed with the Nikkei gaining after the US dollar strengthened against the yen.
Technically speaking, US equities have seen net losses since January. India is strongly influenced by US trends.
The optimism in global markets could help India as the rebound in GDP is expected to continue and get more broad-based.
Sahil Kapoor of Edelweiss Retail Capital Market Research says that setting up a monetary policy committee should have been the first step. And the central bank could have moved towards a formal inflation targeting mechanism after the processes and data sets are in place.
The Reserve Bank had kept policy rate unchanged in its review on April 7.
Above normal monsoon forecast and strength in Asian equities lifted sentiments.
In the broader markets, BSE Midcap index slipped 0.3% whereas the BSE Smallcap index inched up by 0.2%
Finance ministry tells PM fiscal deficit target will be met, capex expenditure won't be cut and GDP growth will surpass 7.5%.
The lack of a strong diversity policy on the part of companies, a limited pool of women candidates as well as socio-cultural factors contribute to their low numbers.
The broadening of the market rally sends the signal that growth will be broad-based, observes Akash Prakash.
IT shares lost ground tracking a sell-off in tech stocks on Nasdaq on Friday
It is important to note that slowdown in activity is really confined to a selected few regions within China.
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