Indian equity benchmarks ended at one month high on Monday with Sensex and Nifty ending the session with half a per cent gains as auto stocks gain after a less-than-expected GST cess and rising vehicle sales.

The 30-share benchmark index closed trading at 31882.16 up by 194.64 points or by 0.61 per cent, while the NSE Nifty closed at 10006.05 up by 71.25 points or by 0.72 per cent.

Optimistic buying in blue-chip stocks ahead of release of industrial production data for July and retail inflation for August, to be released tomorrow, drove stocks higher.

Sentiments also remained upbeat amid firm global cues after North Korea did not conduct another missile test this weekend, when it celebrated its founding anniversary.

In the day’s trade so-far, Sensex touched intraday high of 31952.87 and intraday low of 31797.89 The NSE Nifty touched intraday high of 10028.65 and intraday low of 9968.8.

The top gainers on the D-street included Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (Rs. 1216.90,+3.80%), Asian Paints Ltd. (Rs. 1236.85,+2.84%), Tata Motors Ltd. (Rs. 214.90,+2.55%), Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. (Rs. 8164.90,+2.41%), HDFC Bank Ltd. (Rs. 1822.90,+1.95%), among others.

However, some selling pressure was witnessed in stocks including Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 1280.50,-1.10%), Infosys Ltd. (Rs. 878.55,-0.66%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Rs. 468.65,-0.51%), State Bank of India (Rs. 270.85,-0.40%), ICICI Bank Ltd. (Rs. 291.00,-0.34%), among others.

On the sectoral front, CGS and power stocks emerged as top gainers, rising as much as 2.6 per cent and 1.87 per cent, respectively.

The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was strong. On BSE out of total shares traded 3008 , shares advanced were 1504 while 1320 shares declined and 184 were unchanged.