Mumbai, aug 3
Equity benchmark Sensex skyrocketed 873 points to a fresh closing peak while the Nifty finished above the 16,000-mark for the first time on Tuesday, driven by gains in index heavyweights HDFC, Infosys and TCS.The 30-share BSE index ended 872.73 points or 1.65 per cent higher at its lifetime high of 53,823.36. The broader NSE Nifty rallied 245.60 points or 1.55 per cent to record 16,130.75.
Titan was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising around 4 per cent, followed by HDFC, Nestle India, IndusInd Bank, UltraTech Cement and Bharti Airtel.On the other hand, Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel and NTPC were the laggards.
“Bulls pulled off the 16,000 mark on the Nifty effortlessly buoyed by positive news flow on GST and export data as domestic fund houses poured Rs 280 billion during the first four months of the current fiscal,” said S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities.
The journey past 16,000 quite clearly has been led by the retail investors who have allocated more into equities even as FIIs sold worth Rs 95 billion during this period, he noted.”The present rally is all the more significant since it provides enough opportunities to the new investor coming in now as several pockets of the economy still offer value going forward,” he added.
Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong ended with losses, while Seoul was positive.Stock exchanges in Europe were trading with gains in mid-session deals.Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude advanced 0.47 per cent to USD 73.23 per barrel.Equity benchmark Sensex jumped nearly 245 points in early trade on Tuesday, tracking gains in index majors HDFC, TCS and Infosys and supported by positive macroeconomic indicators.The 30-share index was trading 244.77 points or 0.46 per cent higher at 53,195.40 in initial deals, while the broader NSE Nifty advanced 56.85 points or 0.36 per cent to 15,942.Asian Paints was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising around 3 per cent, followed by Titan, PowerGrid, HDFC, M&M and Tech Mahindra.On the other hand, HCL Tech, Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank and NTPC were among the laggards.In the previous session, Sensex rallied 363.79 points or 0.69 per cent to finish at 52,950.63, while Nifty surged 122.10 points or 0.77 per cent to 15,885.15.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 1,539.88 crore on Monday, as per provisional exchange data.According to V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, fundamental support to the bulls has been coming from good corporate results.”Now the macros are turning very positive with the declining fiscal deficit, rising tax collections, and now the excellent performance in exports which shot up by 48 per cent in July. The PMI at 55.3 indicates a potential sharp turnaround in economic activity.”This can embolden the bulls to take Nifty beyond 15,950 early in August unless FIIs turn massive sellers at those levels,” he said.
