Backed by sustained heavy buying by foreign institutional investors (FII) and sharp gains in banking and oil & gas stocks pushed both the frontline indices to new record highs. Sensex surged by 300.16 points to a closing of 22,055.48, index closed above the 22,000 mark for the first time. Nifty also rose by 88.60 points to end at new record closing of 6,583.50.
Boosted by the strong performance from equity markets and FII buying, rupee also appreciated to its strongest level against dollar in over six months. The rupee gained by 12 paise and ended the session at Rs 60.77 per dollar, at an over six-and-a-half month high closing.
Expressing happines at the performance of the financial market, Finance Ministry said economy has stabilised which is evident from the strengthening of the stock markets as well as the rupee.
“I certainly believe ... The economy has stabilised and that is reflected in rupee and stock markets. And going forward, I think, we will see growth numbers also improving,” Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram told reporters here.
Sensex started the week strong and gradually moved up to a historic intra-day high of 22,074.34, before closing at 22,055.48 with a gain of 300.16 points, its biggest daily rise in two weeks. The previous closing high of 21,934.83 was recorded on March 10 while the lifetime peak of 22,040.72 was on March 18.
On BSE, 155 stocks touched their 52-week high. Hectic activity in select sectors ahead of the expiry of March derivative contracts on Thursday also helped domestic markets shrug off weak Chinese data, market exports said.
Off the 30 stocks comprising Sensex, 24 shares surged led by Gail India which rose by 4.81 per cent. Other top gainers included ONGC, ICICI Bank and Coal India which gained 4.27 per cent, 3.71 per cent and 2.81 per cent respectively. Dr Reddys was the biggest loser on the index and slid by 1.34 per cent.
Sectorally, 10 indices trading on BSE advanced while only two indices fell. The rally was lead by bank and oil & gas indices which zoomed up by 2.73 per and 2.46 per cent respectively. Buying was also seen in rate sensitive stocks as automobile and real estate indices gained by 0.91 per and 0.52 per cent respectively.
Selling was seen in consumer durables index as it fell by 0.33 per cent. Information technology index also declined due to profit booking but managed to restrict the fall and end the session with a marginal loss of 0.02 per cent.
Mirroring rise in stocks, Indian rupee also gained amid heavy capital inflows from FIIs. Tracking strong performance in Indian stocks, the rupee appreciated 12 paise against the US dollar to end at an over six-and-a-half month closing peak of Rs60.77 per dollar. The rupee had last closed at 60.77 on August 6, 2013.
Continued dollar selling by exporters also aided the rupee’s upward journey for the second session in a row even as the dollar index was trading up 0.14 per cent against a basket of six major global currencies.
Domestic currency started the week slightly lower at Rs 60.92 per dollar from last weekend’s close of Rs60.89 per dollar. A strong recovery mirroring jump in Indian shares pushed the rupee to a intra-day high of Rs60.64 per dollar.
last session, currency had surged by 45 paise on the back of massive capital inflows linked to the government stake sale in Axis Bank. Experts see FII inflows helping rupee firm up further. “Going ahead, we will track the number of reports due this week from US, euro zone to get further direction,” said Abhishek Goenka, Founder and CEO, India Forex Advisors.
As per the data available, FIIs have pumped funds worth over Rs22,000 crore or $ 3.6 billion in March so far. These investments helped the Sensex jump over 4 per cent and the rupee about 2 per cent in the month. Alone on Monday FIIs pumped in over Rs1,465 crore in Indian equities.
Despite sharp gains in the fronline indices, the market breadth turned lower as 1,527 stocks ended in the red, 1276 finished with in the green while 158 ruled steady. But the total market turnover rose to Rs2,348.96 crore from Rs449.09 crore on Saturday.