Nifty surges past 8000 as markets hit all-time high again - Livemint

All the sectoral indices were trading higher. The BSE consumer durable index was the top sectoral gainer, up 1.1%. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint

Mumbai: Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty touched a record high on Monday morning on better-than-expected first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) numbers and strong foreign fund flows.

In morning trade, the 30-share bellwether BSE Sensex touched an all-time high of 26,827.76, while the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE’s) broader 50-share Nifty hit a lifetime high of 8,018.65.

The Nifty touched the 8,000 mark in just 78 trading sessions after it had hit the 7,000 mark.

At 9.40am, the Sensex was trading higher by 0.59%, or 156.45 points, at 26,794.56 points, while the Nifty was trading up 0.63%, or 50.05 points, at 8,004.40 points.

On Friday, the government released GDP as well as fiscal deficit data. GDP grew at 5.7% in the June quarter—the fastest in more than two years and better than the 4.6% increase in the preceding quarter. The GDP data was driven by strong industrial recovery. Manufacturing activity grew 3.5%, while construction advanced 4.8%—the first clear signs that Indian economy is on a recovery track.

The gainers included Coal India Ltd (CIL), which was trading higher by 2.1% to Rs.363.75 after news reports said that the government is likely to approve disinvestment of the company this week, which may fetch the exchequer Rs.22,000 crore. NTPC Ltd rose 1.7% to Rs.140.1.

All the sectoral indices were trading higher. The BSE consumer durable index was the top sectoral gainer, up 1.1%. The BSE capital goods index gained 0.9%, the BSE Bankex 0.8%, the BSE auto and metal indices 0.7% each, the BSE Teck index 0.5% and the BSE oil and gas and IT indices 0.4% each.

Metal and power generation stocks were trading higher ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on the coal block allocations case scheduled on Monday. The Supreme Court on 25 August ruled that all coal block allocations made between 1993 and 2010 are illegal. Analysts, however, are optimistic about a positive outcome to the issue.

Wockhardt Ltd was trading at Rs.721 on BSE, up 4.4% from previous close after the company said that its new drug discovery programme in anti-infective research has received a major boost after two of its drugs, WCK 771 and WCK 2349, received the Qualified Infectious Disease Product (QIDP) status from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Since the beginning of this year, the Sensex has gained 26.61%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $12.99 billion from local equity markets.

According to the data released by the Controller General of Accounts on Friday, fiscal deficit for the April-July period stood at Rs.3.25 trillion, 61.2% of the budget estimate of Rs.5.31 trillion. The fiscal deficit—total receipts over total expenditure—was 62.8% of the budget estimate during the same period in the previous financial year.

On Monday, the HSBC Manufacturing PMI data, compiled by Markit, will be released at 10.30am for the month of August. The Manufacturing PMI had increased to 53 in July from 51.50 in June.

A monthly meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) is scheduled for 4 September, and there are expectations that the ECB will announce quantitative easing in the coming months to strengthen growth in the euro zone, which may boost market sentiment.

On Friday, markets were closed on account of Ganesh Chaturthi.

Asian markets were trading marginally higher on Monday despite the downward revision of China’s August purchasing managers index to 50.2 from 50.3. China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.4%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was also up 0.4% and Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average advanced 0.2%.

Wall Street indices ended higher on Friday. The S&P 500 gained 0.5%, and Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.5% each.

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