JOIN USIt was a day of another lifetime highs for the Indian markets as investors cheered better than expected macro economic data, which raised hopes of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its next policy.
While the S&P BSE Sensex closed up 133.97 points at 30,322.12, the 50-share NSE Nifty closed in on the 9,450-mark, ending up 44.50 points at 9,445.40 on the first day of the trading week.
“Stocks markets in India started the trading week on a buoyant note, following positive macro-economic developments at home. The benchmark Sensex and the Nifty started the day in the positive zone and traded firm through the day to finally close with gains of over 0.25%,” BNP Paribas Mutual Fund senior fund manager- equities Karthikraj Lakshmanan said.
Considering that headline retail inflation is now well below the Reserve Bank’s medium term target of 4%, market participants are now hoping for an interest rate cut by the RBI, Lakshmanan added.
Advances and declines were nearly even on NSE on a day when the markets hit new highs with 969 out of a total of 1,758 securities advancing, 688 declining and 101 remaining unchanged. As far as BSE is concerned, 1,481 out of a total of 2,989 securities advanced, 1,299 declined, while 209 remained unchanged.
Metal pack led the list of gainers on NSE with Tata Steel leading the way. Shares of the Tata group-owned entity rose 4.52% to Rs 456.45, with volumes of over 97.54 lakh shares. Hindalco was next on the list, ending up 4% at Rs 198.70. Some of the other major gainers included Dr Reddy’s (up 3.36% to Rs 2,667.50), Bosch (up 2.76% to Rs 24,135), Lupin (up 2.48% to Rs 1,285), Grasim (up 2.17% to Rs 1,174.10) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (up 1.61% to Rs 970).
Aurobindo Pharma led the losers pack, ending down 1.62% at Rs 613.60. Some of the other losers included Infosys, Eicher Motors, Bharti Infratel, Hero Motocorp, YES Bank, BPCL and Axis Bank. Shares of Aditya Birla group controlled telecom services provider Idea Cellular tanked over 6.3% to Rs 86.50 on NSE following disappointing quarterly earnings declared by the company on Saturday.