ensexCreating history, the Sensex on Friday surpassed the 25,000-mark on trends indicating a clear majority for Narendra Modi-led BJP in Lok Sabha polls before retreating on massive profit-booking to end at 24,121.74, a record close.
The 30-share index, which had a solid run in the past few days, surged 1,470 points to hit a new life-time high of 25,375.63 in early trade fuelled by hopes that BJP government would fast-track reforms and accelerate economic activity.
However, the index started losing momentum later and briefly slipped into negative territory to touch low of 23,873.16. Frittering away significant portion of its gain on profit booking, the Sensex nevertheless concluded at a new closing peak of 24,121.74, a gain of 216.14 points or 0.90 percent. This surpasses its closing of 23,905.60 on Thursday.
In terms of market capitalisation, investor wealth rose by a whopping Rs. 1 lakh crore to end at Rs. 80.64 lakh crore.
“While a lot of the positives are already factored in by the markets, now everyone will be watching out for actual steps to be taken by the government starting with Budget and Tax Reforms etc,” said Nirakar Pradhan, Chief Investment Officer, Future Generali India Life Insurance.
The 50-share NSE Nifty crossed the key 7,500-mark to hit an all-time intra-day high of 7,563.50. However, profit-booking at record levels wiped off most of early gains to close at 7,203 — 79.85 points, or 1.12 percent higher.
In the forex market, the rupee climbed to 11-month high of 58.62 against the US dollar amid continued foreign fund inflows into the stock markets. It was last trading at 58.93.
Among the 30-Sensex components, SBI (5.93 per cent), HDFC Bank (2.11 per cent), ICICI Bank (5.15 per cent) Axis Bank (5.60 per cent), Larsen and Toubro (3.52 per cent), Reliance Industries (2.59 per cent), ONGC (1.83 per cent) and NTpercent (2.01 per cent) clocked smart gains.
Maruti Suzuki (1.76 per cent), BHEL (5.25 per cent), Coal India (1.45 per cent), Bharti Airtel (3.33 per cent), Tata Power (3.72 per cent) and Tata Motors (2.39 per cent) were also among prominent gainers. Sesa Sterlite was the best performer with 11 per cent gain.
Sectorally, the BSE realty index gained the most among the BSE sectoral indices, by rising 5.97 per cent, followed by Banking index (4.39 per cent) and PSU index (3.60 per cent).
The Sensex had surged over 1,560 points in the past five trading sessions after exit polls showed leads for the BJP-led NDA.
