With strong corporate earnings, upbeat global cues and investors’ buying spree, Dalal Street witnessed a historic stock market rally on Tuesday when Benchmark Nifty closed above the 9,300-mark for the first time, while the Sensex surged 287 points to a three-week high of 29,943.24, a little distance away from 30,000-mark.
The rupee also continued its upward trend to log a near 21-month high of 64.26, by surging 18 paise against the US dollar on sustained dollar unwinding from exporters amid positive global cues. This is the rupee’s highest closing since August 11, 2015, when it had ended at 64.19 against the greenback.
Overall forex market sentiment remained buoyant as French election outcome removed some of the political uncertainties in the near term even as global equities hit multi-year highs.
Though, currency traders are keeping an eye on events in North Korea as a US carrier group heads for the Sea of Japan.
The incredible bullish sentiment seems to be borne out of a weaker dollar which also provided a boost for emerging market currencies, a forex dealer commented.
However, the RBI intervened in the market through state-run banks in both the spot and the forward markets to prevent further gains in the rupee, he added.
The 50-share Nifty surged 88.65 points, or 0.96 per cent, to reach its new lifetime closing high of 9,306.60, surpassing the previous record close of 9,265.15 on April 5.
Intra-day, it rallied to 9,309.20, breaking its previous intra-day record of 9,273.90 reached on April 5.
The BSE 30-share Sensex also rose about 287 points to end at a three-week high of 29,943.24, after shuttling between 29,961.82 and 29,780.84. The gauge had gained 290.54 points on Monday. This is the highest closing for Sensex since April 5, when it had ended on 29,974.24.
Market insiders, however, said that a string of strong quarterly earnings, including from heavyweight RIl, and appreciating rupee zoomed the buying activity. On the other hand, Asian shares also ended higher following a relief rally in global equities after centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron won the first round of the French presidential election.
“Earnings from both private as well as public sector firms have shown encouraging signs, lifting banking stocks, while Nifty’s surge to 9,300 gave added vigour to market. “Government’s push in the infra and affordable housing space has also kept housing, cement and realty stocks buzzing,” said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.
Meanwhile, domestic funds bought shares worth a net Rs 984.17 crore on Monday, while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold stocks worth a net Rs 279.55 crore, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. Shares of Reliance Industries rose 1.14 per cent after the company on Monday posted a record fourth quarter net profit of Rs 8,046 crore.
Globally, key indices in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan rose by 0.16 - 1.31 per cent. European stocks were trading higher, extending previous day’s gains, as investors monitored political developments in France ahead of the European Central Bank’s policy meeting later in the week. Key indices in France, Germany and UK rose by 0.03 - 0.18 per cent.
US markets rallied on Monday as concerns over France’s potential exit from the euro currency bloc eased. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 216.13 points to close at 20,763.89. The S&P 500 surged 25.46 points to 2,374.15. Back home, out of the 30-share Sensex pack, 24 scrips ended higher. Major gainers were M&M (3.40 per cent), Axis Bank (3.40 per cent), Bharti Airtel (3.18 per cent), Hero Motoco (2.93 per cent), Asian Paints (2.40 per cent), HUl (2.13 per cent), ITC (1.79 per cent), Power Grid (1.44 per cent), Dr Reddy’s (1.43 per cent), ICICI Bank (1.43 per cent), Bajaj Auto (1.30 per cent), HDFC (1.14 per cent) and Reliance (1.14 per cent).
However, TCS fell 0.76 per cent, followed by Cipla 0.58 per cent, Gail 0.39 per cent and NTPC 0.30 per cent. Among BSE sectoral and industry indices, telecom rose 2.62 per cent, FMCG 1.67 per cent, realty 1.26 per cent, oil&gas 1.23 per cent, energy 1.20 per cent, finance 1.18 per cent, auto 1.15 per cent and bankex 1.03 per cent.