Muhurat trade: Sensex ends at new closing high

7.40 pm: Sensex ends at new closing high

Samvat year 2070 commenced with a big bang at the ‘Muhurat’ trading session here today as the benchmark BSE S&P Sensex hit a fresh lifetime high of 21,321.53.

The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share index resumed better at 21,278.08 and firmed up further to a high of 21,321.53, before closing at 21,239.36, at 07.30 pm, showing a gain of 42.55 points from its last close.

After hitting a high of 6,328 at open, the NSE 50-share Nifty closed at 6,317.35, higher by 10.15 points.

The rally was well supported by heavyweights such as ITC, Reliance Ind, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, TCS and ONGC.

Bank stocks gained the most with Indian Bank closing up 15 percent. Dena Bank was up 5 percent. Syndicate Bank, Central bank and Andhra bank were all in the green. However, stocks of private banks such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank were down.

7. 00 pm: ‘Nifty may touch 7,500 by next Diwali’

It is likely that the Nifty may touch 7,500 by next Diwali, BSE member Ramesh Damani said.

Severe under-ownership of Indian equity by local and technical factors suggest the market is headed higher not lower, he told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.

However, fundamentals remain weak and the biggest over-hang for the market is US Federal Reserve’s decision on QE tapering. The market has not discounted the impact of QE tapering, so one cannot rule the possibility of the Nifty slipping to 5500 by next Diwali, he cautioned.

6.30 pm: Sensex opens 80 points up

The market opened on a good mood in Mahurat trading today. The Sensex opened up 80.63 points at 21277.44, and the Nifty up 24.85 points at 6332.05.

Top losers in the Sensex are HDFC, Coal India, HDFC Bank, M&M and Dr Reddy’s Labs.

Tata Motors is the top Sensex gainer, up more than 1.5 pct.

Sanju Verma, group chief executive officer, Violet Arch feels the market is currently polarised between smart money and hot money. She believes that 6400 or 6500, at those levels the market will tire itself out and 6400 looks likely in near term.

However, Raamdeo Agarwal, Joint MD, Motilal Oswal Financial Services sees correction in the middle of November. Now the mood is building up for state election results, he told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.

Gold shares on average have gained 2 percent one week ahead of the holiday. But there hasn’t been any big move in gold this year. Shares of the metal were down 1.4 percent this week. Analysts and gold gurus are predicting that demand in India will be weaker this year as consumers battle a slowing economy, rising inflation and a depreciating rupee.

“You can bet that with the current state of the economy, Indians will be buying less gold and looking for alternative gifting options this Diwali season,” says Arvind Panagariya, professor of economics at Columbia University and India observer.