BSE Sensex & NSE NIFTY Reaches New Heights

Equity benchmark Sensex surged nearly 530 points to scale a new closing peak of 40,889.23 on Monday, buoyed by renewed optimism over US-China trade deal and Government’s divestment measures to curb fiscal deficit.

Further, reconstruction of Sensex indices and hopes of rate cut by the Reserve Bank in the upcoming monetary policy meet also boosted investor sentiment.

Investor wealth rose Rs 1.81 lakh crore driven by a strong rally in the broader market where the BSE benchmark surged 530 points.

Starting on a positive note, the 30-share BSE index went on to touch its record intra-day high of 40,931.71, before finally settling 529.82 points, or 1.31 per cent, higher at 40,889.23 — its all-time closing peak.

Likewise, the broader NSE Nifty closed with a gain of 159.35 points, or 1.34 per cent, at 12,073.75 — just shy of its life-time closing high.

Sectorally, BSE telecom index zoomed nearly 7 per cent on the BSE, lifted by a positive sentiment in the sector in the wake of government’s relief measures and plans to raise tariffs by telcos.

Following suit, the metal index too rose over 3 per cent on hopes that the US and China may strike an early deal to break the logjam in their trade war negotiations.

Besides, a sign of revival in demand, especially in auto, FMCG and other consumer  driven sectors, saw respective sectoral indices rising.

All sectoral indices closed with gains.

In the Sensex pack, Bharti Airtel was the top gainer, rallying over 7.20 per cent, followed by Tata Steel 4.99 per cent, IndusInd Bank 3.49 per cent, Axis Bank 3.26 per cent and Vedanta Ltd 2.57 per cent.

Barring ONGC and Yes Bank, all Sensex constituents closed in the green.

“Cues that US and China will conclude a deal by next month lifted the sentiment across the globe. Reconstruction of Sensex indices and new developments over divestment to curb fiscal deficit provided confidence in Indian market. Expectations of further cut in interest rate by RBI, gave advantage to rate sensitive stocks,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said.

In the biggest privatisation drive ever, the Union Cabinet last week approved sale of government’s stake in blue-chip oil firm BPCL, shipping firm SCI and onland cargo mover Concor as well as decided to cut shareholding in select public sector firms below 51 per cent to boost revenue collections that have been hit by slowing economy.

Analysts are of the view that a trade pact between the US and China is likely by the end of December 2019 after positive statements made by both sides last week.

Further, they said that sentiment got a boost from FIIs preferring emerging markets such as India as the recent easy monetary stance of US Fed and ECB has improved liquidity in world markets. Bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo were trading up to 1.50 per cent higher. Stocks in Europe were also trading on a positive note.

On the currency front, the rupee was flat against the US dollar at 71.71.

Brent futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.11 per cent to $62.44 per barrel.