Sensex, Nifty Advance To Record Highs Led By Reliance Industries, Infosys

The Indian equity benchmarks advanced to new record highs on Monday driven by gains in Reliance Industries, Hindustan Unilever, Larsen & Toubro, Infosys, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and Bharti Airtel. The Sensex rose as much as 350 points to hit record high of 58,480.20 and Nifty 50 index touched an all-time high of 17,421.55. Strong trend in other Asian markets also boosted the bullish sentiment among investors. Asian shares edged higher on Monday as a disappointing US payrolls report promised to keep policy there super-loose for longer, but also clouded the outlook for global growth and inflation.

As of 9:23 am, Sensex was up 282 points at 58,412 and Nifty 50 index was up 83 points at 17,405.

A holiday in the United States made for thin conditions and kept MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan to a small gain of 0.2 per cent, though that was the highest since late July.

Japan's Nikkei added 1.7 per cent, extending a rally on hopes a new prime minister there would bring added fiscal stimulus.

Chinese blue chips gained 1.3 per cent amid speculation Beijing would also be adding stimulus through fiscal and monetary policy.

Back home, buying was visible across the board as seventeen of 19 sector gauges compiled by the BSE were trading higher led by the S&P BSE Energy index's 2.5 per cent gain. Capital Goods, Consumer Durables, Oil & Gas, Power, Realty, Industrials, and Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services indices also rose between 0.5-1.2 per cent.

On the other hand, metal and select healthcare shares were witnessing a mild selling pressure.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.5 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.64 per cent.

Reliance Industries was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose over 3 per cent to hit record high of Rs 2,412 after its subsidiary Reliance Strategic Business Ventures acquired 2,28,42,654 equity shares of Rs 10 each of Strand Life Sciences Private Limited for a cash consideration of Rs 393 crore.

Grasim Industries, Eicher Motors, Bajaj Auto, Hindustan Unilever, Bajaj Auto, Hindustan Unilever, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Hindalco, HCL Tech, Axis Bank, Wipro, Hero MotoCorp and Mahindra & Mahindra also rose between 0.6-2 per cent.

On the flipside, Tata Steel, Indian Oil, Asian Paints, JSW Steel, Power Grid, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Consumer Products, Divi's Labs, Nestle India, UPL and NTPC were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 1,725 shares were advancing while 926 were declining on the BSE.