BENGALURU: Indian shares kicked off August on a positive note on Monday, with benchmark indexes hitting a three-month high led by a rally in automobile stocks on the back of robust monthly sales data.

At the close of trading, the NSE Nifty 50 index rose 1.06% to 17,340.05 and the S&P BSE Sensex climbed 0.95% to 58,115.50. Both the indexes jumped to their highest since April, after logging their best month since November 2020 in the previous session.

The sentiment is boosted by positive global cues, foreign investors buying in July and fall in oil prices, said Anita Gandhi, a whole-time director at Arihant Capital Markets. Foreign investors purchased a net $618.05 million worth of Indian equities in July, marking the first monthly inflow of funds since September 2021, according to Refinitiv data.

Meanwhile, India’s factory activity expanded at its quickest pace in eight months in July, driven by growth in orders and output as demand continued to improve, a private survey showed.