Bullish FIIs push Nifty past 7,000 for first time

 
MUMBAI: The sensex on Monday soared 557 points to close at 23,551 — a record high for the index for the second consecutive session — boosted by a Rs 1,200-crore net foreign fund inflow, mainly on expectations of an NDA win in the Lok Sabha polls. On Friday, with a 650-point rally, the sensex had gone beyond the 23,000 mark for the first time in its history.

The day's rally also took investors' wealth to a new record peak with BSE's market capitalization now at Rs 78.6 lakh crore, surpassing the previous high reached threeand-half years ago. During the day, the NSE nifty scaled the 7K mark for the first time in its life and closed at 7,014, up 115 points.
The day's gains came on expectations that a Narendra Modi-led NDA, which is considered to be more business friendly than the UPA government, could revive growth and boost infrastructure. "Sentiment (on Dalal Street) remained upbeat from the beginning on the prospect of a stable government after May 16. Investors are, however, keeping an eye on CPI inflation data and IIP data," said Jayant Manglik, president (retail distribution ), Religare Securities.
Data released in the evening showed retail inflation jumped to 8.6% in April from 8.3% in March as food inflation rose to 9.7%, while industrial production data disappointed yet again, declining by 0.5% in March.

As of now, the exit poll numbers hold the key for the next session. "So one should maintain extra caution and avoid over-leveraging at current levels," Manglik said. The exit poll results, which came after the markets closed for the day, showed that NDA could just about get the 272 seats needed to form a government.

However, historically, exit poll results in India have mostly been wide off the mark, and this should keep Dalal Street investors on guard till the actual results are out on May 16, market players said. Several broking houses are also taking a cautious stance ahead of the results on Friday, which should come in before noon when trading is on.

The day's rally, during which FIIs pumped in Rs 1,276 crore in the stock market, was across sectors. On Friday, FIIs had pumped in Rs 1,269 crore. The top sensex gainer was PSU major Coal India, which ended 7% up at Rs 331 while HDFC Bank closed 4.6% up at Rs 792 and Tata Motors closed 4.1% up at Rs 445. Among the 30 sensex stocks, only five ended in the red with Sun Pharma down 1.7% at Rs 613 as the top laggard.
PRASHANT SHARMA
PGDM-IIsem