BJP leads in Gujarat, Himachal: Markets recover from early crash; Sensex up 250 points at 33,713; Nifty rises to 10,410

Mumbai: The markets on Monday bounced back later in the day after the Gujarat election results started to tilt in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s favour. At 11.30 am, the benchmark 30-share index was trading at 33,713.50 mark, up more than 250 points or 0.75 percent. Nifty too regained after seeing a massive plunge in the opening trade at the same time. The broader index was trading at 10,409.85 level, up over 76 points or 0.74 percent. Earlier in the day, the benchmark BSE Sensex had tanked as much as 867 points to breach below the psychological 33,000-mark while the NSE Nifty plunged 258 points in the opening session within one hour of counting of votes for Gujarat as well as Himachal Pradesh. The 30-share index crashed by 867.34 points, or 2.59 per cent, to 32,595.63, with all sectoral indices led by realty, Stock markets on Monday stabilised a bit after a crash earlier on as available leads showed the BJP having an upperhand in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly polls within two hours of counting of votes. Later in the day, the votes count showed the BJP was winning Himachal Pradesh also thus paving the way for returning of Prem Kumar Dhumal as chief minister of the hill state. Jimeet Modi, CEO, SAMCO Securities says while the BJP may win with a narrow margin, it is a postive sign from an economic and market perspective. The BJP may be compelled to make policies with consensus and their currently way of going about making policies will have to go. The BJP will make sure public considerations are taken into count before policy making is done in future, he said. Both Sensex and Nifty made good all their early losses and traded much higher. In fact, the BSE index was up 241 points whereas the Nifty barometer reclaimed the 10,400-mark. Meanwhile, the BJP is leading in 83 Assembly seats and the Congress in 62, according to trends available so far for 150 seats in Gujarat. In Himachal Pradesh, the BJP is ahead in 36 seats while for the Congress, the figure is 21. The 30-share BSE Sensex bounced back to 33,703.51, up 240.54 points, or 0.71 percent. The gauge rallied 409.93 points in the previous two sessions after exit polls had predicted BJP win in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections. The 50-issue NSE Nifty, which had lost over 258 points in the opening trade, was higher by 77.85 points, or 0.75 percent, at 10,411.10 at 1000 hours. The rupee recovering much of its lost ground against the dollar provided more support. Major gainers were M&M, Adani Ports, L&T, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, SBI and Tata Steel, rising by up to 2.46 percent. Other Asian markets too were in a better shape, taking positive leads from record highs on Wall Street on Friday. Japan’s Nikkei was up 1.39 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.53 percent. Shanghai Composite, however, was down. (with inputs from PTI)