MUMBAI: Benchmark indices seem to be moving only in one direction — upwards. On Tuesday, both Sensex and Nifty closed at fresh record highs led by rallies in metal, banking, IT and oil and gas stocks.
The surge in indices also comes a day after the IMF revised upwards India’s GDP forecast to 7.4 per recent in FY18 and the potential to be the world’s fastest growing economy in FY19.
While Sensex rose 0.96 per cent or 342 points to 36,139.98 and Nifty climbed 1.07 per cent or 117 points to 11,084. During the intra day trade, Sensex jumped 372.82 points to hit a fresh record high of 36,170.83. Not one to be left behind, Nifty surged 126.70 points to hit an all-time high of 11,092.90.
“Propelled by a combination of liquidity and optimism, Nifty rose to an all-time-high crossing 11,000. This bull run has seen markets ignore higher crude prices and global geopolitical issues while latching on to domestic positives...,” said Jayant Manglik, president of Religare Broking said.
All the sectoral indices on BSE ended higher. Among the 30-share Sensex, SBI (3.84 per cent), Tata Steel (3.72 per cent), ONGC (3.60 per cent) and ICICI Bank (3.06 per cent) and Coal India (3.04 per cent) were top gainers, whereas Wipro, Tata Motors, Asian Paints and HDFC Bank were major losers. Domestic sentiment was buoyed after the US government ended shutdown after passing a temporary funding bill. “The bull run in the equity markets continues in India.
The turnaround in the Industrial/economic growth in October 2017 along with big policy announcements related to Bank recap and Bharatmala led to a good upward move in October, 2017. In January, 2018, we are witnessing foreign institutional investors returning to the buy side in a big way after a break. The forthcoming Budget could aid in determining the future direction of markets from hereon,” said Deepak Jasani, Head-Retail Research, HDFC Securities.
Meanwhile, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2 per cent to a fresh record high, while Australian stocks climbed 0.7 per cent. Likewise, Japan’s Nikkei ended 0.45 per cent higher, even as South Korea’s KOSPI rose 0.5 per cent. A total of 19,158.93 lakh shares changed hands in 13,623,168 trades.
Market movers
Among the 30-share Sensex, SBI, Tata Steel, ONGC and ICICI Bank were top gainers, whereas Wipro, Tata Motors, Asian Paints and HDFC Bank were major losers.