The benchmark equity indices rose for the seventh straight session on Monday, with the 30-share Sensex closing at a new all-time, high even as the broader Nifty again came close to breaching the 12,000-mark in intraday trading.
Market participants attributed the gains to decent earnings numbers, strong inflows from foreign investors and the positive trend among global markets on account of optimism around the U.S.-China trade deal.
The benchmark Sensex gained 136.93 points or 0.34% to close at 40,301.96, surpassing the earlier closing high of 40,267.62 touched on June 3. In the last 7 trading sessions, the index has surged 1,300 points. The 50-share Nifty rose 50.7 points, or 0.43%, to 11,941.3.
“Positive factors like decent earnings season so far, better-than-expected festive sales, hopes of stimulus from the government and continued FII inflows helped improve sentiment,” said Siddhartha Khemka, head, Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were net sellers on Monday at ₹138.53 crore.
However, FPIs were net buyers at ₹12,368 crore in October, the highest monthly net purchases since April.
Gains in Sensex were led by HDFC, Infosys and ICICI Bank. On Monday, while HDFC reported a 60% rise in its Q2 second quarter net profit, software major Infosys said that it has not found any prima facie evidence against the alleged complaints made by the anonymous whistle-blower.. At a broader level, more than 1,400 stocks gained ground on BSE, as against 1,156 declines. Investor sentiment was also lifted by the positive trend in global markets on the back of optimism over an interim deal in the ongoing U.S.-China trade talks. The benchmarks of Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan all gained over 1% each.
