Indian markets settled on a cheerful rate on Monday led by assembly election results, broadly favourable to BJP and on oil & gas reforms. At the close, the benchmark 30-share index, BSE Sensex gained 321.32 points or 1.23% at 26,429.85 with 23 components posting rise. Meanwhile, the broad based NSE Nifty climbed by 99.70 points or 1.28% at 7,879.40 with 43 components registering rise.
Commenting on the markets, Rakesh Goyal, senior vice president, Bonanza Portfolio said, ''Nifty opened at 7,896 points, up by 117 points or 1.5% over Friday's closing levels on the back of reassured political stability and strong policy reforms by the new government. Nifty made a high of 7,905 points and Sensex surged upto 26,517 points today as market players cheered these much-awaited measures by the new government.
Overall, we expect the markets to maintain its bullish stance till Diwali muhurat trading and this would mark a perfect end to an eventful but healthy year for the equities. With quick policy decision making and reforms clearances, we expect the new government to maintain and build higher confidence for FII investors.''
The Auto index climbed the most with a gain of 2.17% followed by Capital Goods (2.14%). On the other hand IT dropped by 0.83%. ONGC, Hindalco, Tata Motors and Axis Bank were major gainers in the Sensex pack. On the other hand, Wipro, Infosys, TCS and ITC were the top losers in the benchmark index.
The BSE Mid and small caps underperformed their larger counterparts gaining 1.12% and 0.48% respectively. Overall market breadth was negative with 1,664 advances against 1,233 declines.
Shares of Hindustan Construction Company, Axis Bank and JSPL were active in day's trade. Share of HCC witnessed a sharp rise of 4.86% today after the company bagged an order worth Rs 3.93 billion road projects by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highway.
Shares of Axis Bank witnessed a rise of 3.92% after the bank reported growth of 18.23% in its net profit for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2014. The bank earned a profit of Rs 16.11 billion for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2014. The bank's quarterly income totalled at Rs 105.5 billion, an increase of 12.53% over Rs 93.75 billion in the same period a year ago.
Whereas shares of JSPL registered a sharp fall of 8.58% after CBI has registered a fresh case of alleged cheating and corruption against the company among others in connection with its probe into coal blocks allocation.
