Sensex Races Past 36k-Mark, Within Striking Distance of All-time High

Mumbai: Rising for the third day, the BSE Sensex surged 305 points to recapture the 36,000-level while the NSE Nifty closed well above 10,900 today as participants wagered on robust corporate earnings.

Indices raced to over five-month highs on the back of unabated buying by domestic institutional investors and a good set of corporate results so far, brokers said.

Barring BSE Healthcare, all other sectoral indices closed with gains, led by energy, realty and telecom counters.

Financial services conglomerate HDFC Group saw the market capitalisation of its listed firms cross the Rs 10 lakh crore mark, making it only the second Indian business house after Tatas to achieve this feat.

The 30-share Sensex opened strong and hit a high of 36,274.33 before finally ending at 36,239.62, up 304.90 points or 0.85 per cent. It has now gained 665.07 points in three sessions.

The surge means that Sensex is now within striking distance of all time-high of 36,443.98.

The benchmark is just a tad lower from its all-time closing high of 36,283.25 hit on January 29 this year.

Similarly, the 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 94.35 points, or 0.87 per cent, to end at 10,947.25. Intra-day, it shuttled between 10,956.90 and 10,876.65.

The Sensex and Nifty remained above their key levels of 36,000 and 10,900 throughout the session, indicating strong investor optimism after a prolonged spell of caution.

Auto stocks spurted after data showed that passenger vehicle sales in India rose by 37.54 per cent in June, the fastest monthly growth in nearly ten years.

TCS dipped 0.56 per cent ahead of its June-quarter results.

Meanwhile, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) picked up shares worth a net Rs 740.39 crore yesterday, while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) offloaded equities to the tune of Rs 569.91 crore, provisional data showed.

"Market rallied to a five month high as fading trade war woes and shift in attention to corporate earnings supported investor sentiment. Any revival in earnings growth will give scope for re-rating in valuation for many mid-cap stocks which were the real victims of the recent correction.

"However, rupee depreciated and bond yield rose in expectation of increase in June CPI inflation," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

Market heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) topped the Sensex gainers list, surging 3.02 per cent.

Other winners included Yes Bank 2.58 per cent, Coal India 2.56 per cent, Bajaj Auto 2.36 per cent, Wipro 2.26 per cent, Tata Steel 2.11 per cent, NTPC 1.82 per cent, Maruti Suzuki 1.72 per cent, Axis Bank 1.70 per cent, Bharti Airtel 1.60 per cent, HDFC Ltd 1.54 per cent and HDFC Bank 1.31 per cent.

IndusInd Bank ended 1 per cent lower despite the lender posting a 24 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 1,035.72 crore for the quarter ended June 30.

Kotak Bank lost 0.96 per cent, Sun Pharma 0.96 per cent, Hero Motocorp 0.83 per cent, TCS 0.56 per cent, HUL 0.40 per cent, Power Grid 0.24 per cent, M&M 0.20 per cent, Vedanta 0.20 per cent and L&T 0.16 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, the BSE energy advanced 2.01 per cent, followed by realty 1.79 per cent, telecom 1.75 per cent, metal 1.58 per cent, oil and gas 1.06 per cent, PSU 0.96 per cent, infrastructure 0.95 per cent, auto 0.94 per cent, capital goods 0.88 per cent, power 0.86 per cent, bankex 0.58 per cent, teck 0.51 per cent, consumer durables 0.46 per cent, IT 0.42 per cent and FMCG 0.40 per cent.

Healthcare fell 0.14 per cent.

The BSE small-cap and mid-cap indices too rallied in step with key indices, gaining 1.04 per cent and 1.01 per cent, respectively.

HCL Technologies Ltd rose 1.86 per cent after the company said it will consider a share buyback on July 12.

On the global front, markets rose amid optimism that the upcoming earnings season will offset a rise in trade tensions.

Japan's Nikkei ended 0.66 per cent higher, Singapore rose 1.27 per cent and Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.44 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended flat.

In Europe, Paris CAC edged higher by 0.20 per cent, while Frankfurt's DAX rose 0.30 per cent in their early deals. London's FTSE too was up 0.10 per cent.

US equities rose yesterday, as investors set aside concern about escalating trade tensions and rising political tension abroad to focus on the coming earnings season.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 1.31 per cent higher on Monday.