The Indian benchmark indices finished marginally higher on Monday after trading lower in the morning. The BSE Sensex closed 45.20 points higher at 33,724.44, while the NSE Nifty finished 9.85 points up at 10,399.55.

The markets had opened lower after making gains for seven consecutive sessions last week. The sluggishness was due to financial services company Standard & Poor’s on Friday keeping its sovereign rating for India constant at BBB- and its outlook for the country “stable”. However, the markets recovered in the afternoon session.

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The top gainers on the Sensex were NTPC, Axis Bank, ONGC, the State Bank of India and Kotak Mahindra. The top losers were Infosys, Tata Motors, Adani Ports, Tata Steel and Tata Motors DVR.

NTPC and Axis Bank were the top two gainers on the Nifty too. The other stocks which rose the most were Zee Entertainment, Tata Power and ONGC. The five top losers were HPCL, Adani Ports, Infosys, Ambuja Cements and Tata Motors.

All other major Asian markets declined on Monday. The Hong Kong Hang Seng fell by over 180 points, the Taiwan index 103 points, Japan’s Nikkei nearly 55 points and the Shanghai SE Composite Index 31 points.

The rupee was trading 14 paise up at 64.56 against the United States dollar at 3.51 pm.