Sensex, Nifty on record-hitting spree; banks rally

 

Mumbai: The Sensex and Nifty hit a record high for a sixth straight session on Monday on the back of strong inflows from foreign institutional investors and supportive cues from Asian stock markets.

 

In the morning trade, the Sensex touched an all-time high of 22,467.21, up 0.57% or 127.24 points. Nifty, too, hit a lifetime high of 6,730.05, up 0.51%, or 34.15 points.

 

 

The gainers included NTPC Ltd that jumped 1.9% to Rs.123.15 and State Bank of India (SBI) that rose 1.52% to Rs.1,931.20.

 

Among the losers, Wipro Ltd shares lost 0.43% to Rs.549.15, while Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) fell 0.34% to Rs.2,098.4.

 

The BSE power index was the top sectoral gainer, up 1.31%. The oil and gas index and the metal index were up 0.9% and 0.86%, respectively. The IT index was top loser on BSE, down 0.47%.

 

State-run banks extended recent gains after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday extended the deadline for banks to implement Basel III capital rules by a year to 31 March 2019, due to concerns from the industry on potential stress to asset quality.

 

 

Bank of India rose 7.73%, Canara Bank jumped 6.55%, Punjab National Bank (PNB) soared 6.42%, Bank of Baroda was up 5.14%, Yes Bank Ltd rose 3.54%, Federal Bank of India Ltd jumped 2.45% and Axis Bank Ltd rose 2.24%.

 

Suzlon Energy Ltd was trading at Rs.11.35 on BSE, up 15%, after media reported that the company is planning to raise Rs.10,000 crore via share sale in Senvion unit.

 

GMR Infrastructure Ltd was trading at Rs.22.30 on BSE, up 3% from its previous close, after it reported that it had filed a draft red hearing prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for initial public offering (IPO) of its unit GMR Energy Ltd.

 

Since the beginning of this year, BSE Sensex has gained 6.04%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $3.61 billion during the period from local equity markets.

 

Investors says RBI is likely to keep interest rate unchanged in the annual monetary policy on 1 April as the retail inflation is yet to show definite signs of moderation.

 

US markets ended higher on Friday after a report showed consumer spending rose 0.3% from a month earlier in February. All eyes are on the US employment report for March due this week which is expected to show an improvement. The S&P 500 gained 0.5%, Nasdaq Composite was up 0.1% and Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4%.

 

Asian markets were trading higher on Monday cheering data released on Friday that gave hopes of a recovery in US consumer spending. Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average was up 0.43%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng marginally up 0.07% and China’s Shanghai Composite was marginally down 0.02%.

 

At 9.28am, the Sensex was trading higher by 0.39%, or 87.50 points, at 22,427.47, while the Nifty was trading up 0.35%, or 23.65 points, at 6,6719.55 points.

Rahul kumar Gupta

PGDM,1st Year

source:-Mint