Sensex, Nifty scale record highs as investors eye corporate earnings, budget; IT, pharma, metal shares gain

Mumbai: Stocks rose to fresh life-time closing high levels on optimism over earnings, growth and upcoming budget, with the benchmark BSE Sensex jumping 199 points to end at record 34,352.79 and Nifty scaling the 10,600 mark for the first time. Gains in key IT, capital goods, healthcare and metal stocks after consistent buying by domestic and foreign investors helped both the key indices to scale new peaks. The 30-share Sensex opened higher and continued its upward march to touch a new intra-day record high of 34,385.67, surpassing its previous high of 34,188.85 hit on 5 January. But it lost some ground due to profit-booking and settled up by 198.94 points, or 0.58 percent, at 34,352.79 – its all-time closing high. The Sensex bettered its previous record of 34,153.85 touched on 5 January. Similarly, the broader 50-issue NSE Nifty hit a new intra-day high of 10,631.20, smashing its previous record of 10,566.10 hit on January 5. [caption id=“attachment_4293377” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] BSE building. Reuters.[/caption] However, he index shed some grounds to close at 10,623.60, still a new closing high, up by 64.75 points or 0.61 percent. It broke the previous record of 10,558.85 reached on 5 January. “Supportive global market and optimism ahead of earnings season took the market to a new high. A cut in FY18 GDP growth estimate by CSO did not impact the movement since it was overtly conservative. Revival in earnings, incremental QoQ growth in GDP and Budget expectations are sustaining the momentum,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services Ltd. The CSO on Friday said that India’s growth is likely to slow down to 6.5 percent in 2017-18 against 7.1 percent in 2016-17 and 8 percent in the preceding year mainly due to impact of GST on manufacturing and subdued farm output. “Sentiments were also boosted by the positivity from global peers and expectations on the upcoming union budget, anticipating reforms for fiscal consolidation and enhancements in rural spending. Recovery in dollar rode the pharma and IT stocks higher,” Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have been supporting the ongoing rally in the new year by pumping in sizeable money into the market. FPIs bought shares to the tune of Rs 581.43 crore while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased shares worth a net Rs 243.13 crore last Friday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges. Coal India was the best gainer among Sensex components by surging 3.26 percent, followed by Infosys 2.33 percent and Sun Pharma by2.28 percent to Rs 591.95. L&T too showed strength and ended 1.80 percent higher after the company said its construction arm has won orders worth Rs 2,265 crore from Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority. Other big gainers include Hero MotoCorp, IndusInd Bank, ITC Ltd, Hindustan Unilever, HDFC Ltd, Wipro, Tata Motors, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, M&M, Kotak Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Yes Bank, Power Grid and HDFC Bank, rising by up to 1.37 percent. In contrast, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, SBI, Tata Steel, Adani Ports and Dr Reddy’s ended lower on profit-booking. Among sectoral indices, IT stayed in the lead by surging 1.40 percent, followed by capital goods index 1.22 percent, healthcare 1.20 percent, realty 0.87 percent, metal 0.78 percent, FMCG 0.78 percent, oil & gas 0.67 percent, teck 0.66 percent and infrastructure 0.39 percent. While telecom index ended 2.64 percent lower as investors booked profits at higher levels. The market rally lifted the mid-cap index by 0.98 percent and small-cap 0.97 percent. In the Asian region, Shanghai Composite gained 0.52 percent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.28 percent. Financial markets in Japan remained shut for a public holiday. In the Eurozone, markets were trading higher in their early deal, tracking a broadly upbheat session in Asia. Paris CAC 40 rose 0.17 percent, while Frankfurt’s DAX was up by 0.19 percent in late morning trade. London’s FTSE, however, shed 0.13 percent.