India's Nifty 50 ends higher on auto boost; midcaps climb

BENGALURU (Reuters) -India's blue-chip Nifty 50 ended a touch higher on last-hour buying on Monday, lifted by gains in automakers after monsoons revived in some parts of the country, while midcap stocks climbed sharply.

The Nifty closed up 0.14% at 18,691.2, while the S&P BSE Sensex dipped 0.01% to 62,970.00. However, the Nifty midcap 100 index climbed 0.9%.

Domestic equities appeared to brush off worries of political instability in Russia and a subsequent rise in oil prices, after a short-lived mutiny by Russian mercenaries against Moscow. [MKTS/GLOB]

Last week, the Nifty consolidated just shy of record levels, while the Sensex eased after hitting an all-time high, weighed down by hawkish central bank commentary.

The indexes struggled for direction for a large part of Monday's session, before seeing some buying led by automakers and pharmaceutical stocks.

"A revival of monsoon in some parts of India will spur rural population's discretionary spending and increase the sale of especially two-wheelers," said Rahul Sharma, market strategist and head of research at Equity99.

Two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp gained 2.7%, while Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki advanced more than 1.5% each.

The Nifty Pharma index advanced 1.5%, with Nifty 50 stocks Divi's Lab and Cipla rising 2.1% and 3.3%, respectively.

Shree Cement slumped 5.7% after an NDTV report said the company evaded taxes to the tune of 230 billion rupees, following surveys by the income tax department in the state of Rajasthan.

Shree Cement did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment on the report. The company said in a statement late Saturday that the survey was still going on.

ICICI Securities, a unit of private lender ICICI Bank, surged 10.5% after the company said it was considering delisting its shares, likely by swapping its shares with those of ICICI Bank.

(Reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K)