Sensex, Nifty Surge To Nine-Month Highs On Broad-Based Buying Interest

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes surged to their highest levels since February 14 on the back of broad-based buying interest as the markets were on track to close higher for fourth straight session. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening taking cues from strong session of equities in US as Wall Street breathed a sigh of relief on Wednesday, as the latest US election tallies pointed to a divided government that made the prospect of tax hikes advocated by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden unlikely. The Sensex rose as much as 728 points and Nifty 50 index moved above its important psychological level of 12,100.

As of 2:21 pm, the Sensex was up 655 points at 41,271 and Nifty 50 index climbed 189 points to 12,097.

"Trump or Biden, it will not be a big difference for Indian markets... since both the US parties are bullish on India," Kochi-based Geojit Financial Services' head of research, Vinod Nair, told NDTV. The US is the fifth largest investor in India, according to the government's National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency.

A big stimulus is expected in the US after the election regardless of who wins, he added. "That will be very positive for world economy and emerging markets... India will garner good FIIs (foreign institutional investor) inflows."

Meanwhile, buying was visible across sectors as all the sector gauges, barring the index of real estate shares, compiled by National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by Nifty Metal index's 3.5 per cent gain. Nifty Bank, Auto, Financial Services, FMCG, Media and PSU Bank indexes also rose between 1-3.5 per cent each.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indexes rose 1.5 per cent each.

47 out of 50 shares in the Nifty were trading higher led by State Bank of India's 6 per cent surge. Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, Bharat Petroleum, IndusInd Bank, Hindalco, UPL, Bajaj Finserv, GAIL India and JSW Steel also rose between 3-5 per cent.

On the flipside, Hero MotoCorp, HDFC Life and Divis Labs were among the notable losers.

The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 1,690 shares were advancing while 863 were declining on the BSE.