Mumbai. On Monday, the benchmark Sensex closed at a new record level, up 443 points, while the Nifty remained above 24,100 points, amid strong global markets and buying in bank and IT stocks at the domestic level. The BSE’s 30-share index Sensex closed at an all-time high of 79,476.19, up 443.46 points or 0.56 percent. During trading, the Sensex at one time jumped 528.27 points to reach 79,561.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) index Nifty rose 131.35 points to close at its highest level of 24,141.95 points. During trading, it reached 24,164, which is just 10 points less than the all-time high of 24,174 achieved in the previous trading session. Among the stocks included in the Sensex group, Tech Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finance, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Consultancy Services, JSW Steel, Infosys, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors and ICICI Bank were the major gainers.
On the other hand, shares of NTPC, State Bank of India, Larsen & Toubro, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank and Axis Bank declined. Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said, “The domestic market maintained its momentum. The decline in US inflation has increased the expectations of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve in September. This expectation contributed to the strong performance of information technology (IT) stocks.” BSE’s small and medium companies index also reached record levels. The smallcap index jumped 1.58 percent while the midcap index gained 1.11 percent.
Among the sectoral indices, the IT sector rose the most by 1.84 percent while the technology sector registered a gain of 1.46 percent. Religare Broking Limited’s Senior Vice President (Research) Ajit Mishra said, “Buying trend on slight decline indicates a bullish phase. Strength in midcap and smallcap sectors strengthens the positive trend.” India’s manufacturing sector production has grown rapidly in June. According to the HSBC Purchasing Management Index Survey, new companies came up due to favorable demand and employment increased.
In other Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi, Japan’s Nikkei and China’s Shanghai Composite closed higher. European markets were trading with gains. US markets closed with a decline on Friday. Global oil benchmark Brent crude rose 0.51 percent to $85.43 a barrel. According to stock market data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) made net sales of shares worth Rs 23.09 crore on Friday. On Friday, the BSE Sensex closed 210.45 points lower at 79,032.73 while the Nifty fell 33.90 points to 24,010.60.