Nifty hits all-time closing high

Indian markets soared to record highs following Bharatiya Janata Party’s resounding victory in the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.

The Sensex and the Nifty staged a spectacular rally on Tuesday after a long weekend with the latter ending at an all-time closing high, gaining 152.45 points (1.71%) to end above the 9,050-mark at 9,087.

The previous closing high for Nifty was 8,996.3, which it had hit on March 3, 2015. The S&P BSE Sensex ended at a two-year high, closing 496.40 points (1.71%) up at 29,442.63.

 In the results announced on March 11, 2017, BJP won 312 out of 403 seats in the UP assembly elections, much above the market expectations. The SGX Nifty had rose nearly 2.5% on Monday, a day when the Indian markets were closed on account of Holi.

ICICI Bank was the top gainer on the Nifty, ending nearly 6% up at Rs 286.70 with volumes of over 3.95 crore shares. Some of the other gainers included Hindustan Unilever, Larsen & Toubro, Ultratech Cement, HDFC, Asian Paints and Sun Pharma.

Advances outnumbered declines on the NSE with 1,041 out of a total of 1,744 securities advancing, 610 securities declining and 93 remaining unchanged. A total of 66 securities hit 52-week highs on the NSE while 35 securities hit their respective 52-week lows.

Out of the 50 stocks on Nifty, seven managed to end in the red on a day when the index hit a new high. Bosch was the top loser, ending down 2.11% at Rs 22,281.10.

The other losers included Idea, Axis Bank, Coal India, Bharti Airtel, GAIL and Lupin.
“Markets rose sharply in response to the state election results on hopes that the reforms process will gather pace and economic growth rates will likely improve. India outperformed all global markets for the day,” Kotak Securities senior vice president (PCG Research) Dipen Shah said.

 “The important event to watch out for will be the US Federal Reserve meeting decision on rates. While markets are expecting a rate hike this meeting, what will be of more interest is the commentary. If it is hawkish, it may have an impact on fund flows to EMs. India may be relatively less impacted because of the continuing domestic flows,” Shah added.