Mumbai, March 17 : The Indian stock market closed with strong gains on Monday, driven by buying in financial, pharma and select metal stocks.

Both the Sensex and Nifty saw a positive finish despite a mixed start to the day. The Sensex opened on a cautious note, briefly slipping to 73,796, down 33 points in early trade.

However, it quickly gained momentum, rallying to a high of 74,376, which was 400 points above the intra-day's low. After trading in a consolidated manner for the rest of the session, the Sensex ended the day 341 points higher at 74,170.

The Nifty index also started on a weak note, opening with a 44-point loss at 22,353. But it soon recovered and climbed to an intra-day high of 22,577. By the end of the session, the index settled at 22,509, gaining 112 points or 0.5 per cent.

Among the top-performing stocks on the Sensex, Bajaj Finserv surged 3.8 per cent to Rs 1,875. Adani Ports, Mahindra & Mahindra, Axis Bank, and Bajaj Finance also recorded gains of around 2 per cent each.

Other key gainers included Zomato, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, UltraTech Cement, Tata Motors, and Tata Steel.

On the downside, ITC declined by 1 per cent, while Nestle India, SBI, and Reliance Industries also ended in the negative territory.

In the broader market, the BSE MidCap index gained 0.8 per cent, while the SmallCap index closed flat. Among sectors, the BSE Healthcare, financial services, auto, and metal indices gained around 1 per cent each on Monday.

'As the session progressed, profit booking led to a 100-point decline from the day's high, reflecting market participants' cautious stance,' said Sundar Kewat from Ashika Institutional Equity.

He added that on the global front, sentiment received a boost as China unveiled a strategic action plan on Sunday to stimulate domestic demand.

'Additionally, better-than-expected industrial production and accelerating retail sales growth in China further supported optimism,' he mentioned.

Rupee traded strong by 0.27 at 86.86 against the dollar, supported by a weak dollar index and lower outflows in the secondary capital markets in recent days.

'The dollar's weakness continues to provide support to the rupee, while market participants are closely watching key US economic data releases, including retail sales, the Fed's policy meeting, and its statement later this week,' said Jateen Trivedi from LKP Securities.

/IANS