Mumbai. The domestic stock market closed with gains for the second consecutive day, buoyed by the possibility of Prime Minister Narendra Modi leading the next government at the Centre. On Thursday, both benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty managed to gain 692 points and 201 points respectively.
The BSE benchmark Sensex once again crossed the 75,000 mark, jumping 692.27 points or 0.93 per cent to close at 75,074.51. During trading, it had risen 915.49 points to reach 75,297.73 at one point. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) index Nifty also closed at 22,821.40, climbing 201.05 points or 0.89 per cent. During trading, it had risen 289.8 points or 1.28 per cent to reach 22,910.15. Among the companies included in the Sensex group, the shares of Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, State Bank of India, NTPC, Infosys, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro registered the highest gains.
On the other hand, shares of Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, Mahindra & Mahindra, Nestle, IndusInd Bank and Sun Pharma declined. Although BJP did not get a clear majority on its own in the recently concluded parliamentary elections. But together with its allies, BJP has enough majority to form the government and Prime Minister Modi has started efforts to form the government at the center for the third consecutive time.
On Tuesday, the day the election results were announced, the market fell by about six percent and investors lost Rs 31 lakh crore in a single day. But after that, about Rs 21 lakh crore has been recovered in two trading sessions of improvement.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said, “Before the swearing in of the new coalition government, the benchmark indices continued their upward trend. In fact, investors are now expecting a stable government to be formed.”
Despite this, there is some apprehension about the form of the new government and the policy measures to be announced in the upcoming budget. Nair said, “The market is now waiting for the Reserve Bank’s latest comments on cash.” The BSE Smallcap index, representing the shares of small companies, jumped 3.06 percent, while the Midcap index, representing the shares of mid-sized companies, rose 2.28 percent.
Among the sectoral indices, realty, information technology, oil and gas sectors were in the green while consumer goods and healthcare sectors declined. In other Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed with gains while China’s Shanghai Composite closed with losses. Most European markets were trading with gains. US markets closed in the positive zone on Wednesday.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude rose 0.09 percent to $78.43 per barrel. According to stock market data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 5,656.26 crore on Wednesday. Recovering from the heavy fall on the day of election results, the Sensex jumped 2,303.19 points to 74,382.24 on Wednesday and the Nifty rose 735.85 points to 22,620.35.