Sensex, Nifty Close At Record Highs Led By Reliance Industries

The Indian equity benchmarks closed at record highs led by gains in Reliance Industries, Baja Finance, HDFC, Tata Steel HDFC Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra. The Sensex rose as much as 243 points to hit an all-time high of 55,680.75 and Nifty 50 index touched record high of 16,589.40. The gains in the equity markets were capped owing to weakness in Infosys, State Bank of India, Maruti Suzuki and ICICI Bank.

The Sensex ended 145 points higher to close at an all-time high of 55,582.58 and Nifty 50 index rose 34 points to end at record high of 16,563.

"Sentiments remained intact and poised towards positivity as the government focuses more on the infrastructure in the coming time which will help the economy reach new heights. Our research suggests that 16,350 is an important support level for Nifty in the short term, if Nifty sustains above this level, we can expect the market to remain positive and gain momentum, leading to an upside projection till 16,700-16,750 level," Gaurav Garg, Head of Research at CapitalVia Global Research told NDTV via email.

Nine of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower led by Nifty Media index's 1.4 per cent decline. Consumer Durables, Realty, Pharma, IT, Auto and Bank indices also closed with a negative bias.

On the other hand, Nifty Metal index was top Nifty gainer, up 1.5 per cent. Oil & Gas, FMCG and Financial Services indexes also closed higher.

Broader markets underperformed their larger peers as Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 0.35 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index declined 0.72 per cent.

Four companies made their stock market debut on Monday. Devyani International made a stellar market, the fast-food chain operator opened higher by 56 per cent at Rs 141 on the BSE and Rs 140.90 on the NSE, as against issue price of Rs 90 per share.

Exxaro Tiles shares opened for trading at Rs 126, marking a premium of 5 per cent from issue price of Rs 120 per share.

Windlas Biotech shares made a weak debut on exchanges as the stock opened for trading at Rs 437 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), marking a discount of 5 per cent from issue price of Rs 460.

Krsnaa Diagnostics made a tepid debut on the bourses. The Pune-based diagnostics chain's shares listed at a premium of 7 per cent at Rs 1,025 on the BSE and a premium of over 5 per cent at Rs 1,005 on the NSE compared to the issue price of 954 per share.

Reliance Industries was among the top Nifty gainers, the stock advanced as much as 2.8 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 2,203 after Bloomberg reported that Saudi Aramco is in advanced talks for an all-stock deal to acquire a stake in Reliance Industries Ltd.'s oil refining and chemicals business, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, Mahindra & Mahindra, Britannia Industries, Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, JSW Steel, Bajaj Finserv and HDFC also rose 1-3 per cent.

On the flipside, Maruti Suzuki, Shree Cements, Eicher Motors, Power Grid, Bajaj Auto, State Bank of India, UltraTech Cement, Coal India and Tata Motors were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was extremely negative as 2,127 shares ended lower while 1,167 closed higher on the BSE.