Indian Stock market indices surged to record highs amidst renewed buying interest from foreign institutional investors (FIIs). The BSE Sensex on Monday closed above 22000 mark at 22055.48, up 300 points or 1.38 per cent following heavy buying in banking and oil and gas stocks. This was the record highest level achieved by the Sensex so far.
Similarly the NSE Nifty also surged to its record high of 6591.50 points before closing with a gain of 88.61 points at 6583.50 points, up 1.36 per cent. The top Nifty gainers included GAIL (up 5.29 per cent), ONGC (4.37 per cent), IndusInd Bank (4.20 per cent), Kotak Bank (3.86 per cent) and ICICI Bank (3.57 per cent). According to data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), FIIs pumped in Rs. 4,280 crore into Indian equities on Monday. “At the start of the trade, HSBC released its PMI data on China which signalled a contraction in the month of February. However, the Indian equities shrugged off mixed global cues. It was a historic high for the Sensex. The market breadth was positive,” said Sanjeev Zarbade, Vice President- Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities.
“Among the leaders, banks stood out as clear outperformers during the day. ONGC rallied 4 percent ahead of board meeting for announcement of interim dividend today. The Indian market has been strong in current year aided by robust FII flows and optimism related to general elections,” he added.
“The prolonged consolidation in benchmark indices finally come to an end on Monday and they scaled to new life-time highs. The much awaited breakout was triggered mainly by the buoyancy in banking counters as investors have started eyeing the RBI policy review scheduled on April 1," said Jayant Manglik, President-retail distribution, Religare Securities.
"It is generally expected that there would be no change in the key policy rates and RBI would take many variables into account in its April policy, including the direction of food prices, which had been responsible for driving up WPI and CPI in past,” he added.
