Sensex hits new high on rally in technology stocks

mumbai — Positive global cues and healthy buying in banking, IT and capital goods stocks pushed the Indian equity markets to provisionally close at fresh highs on Monday.

At 3.30pm, the wider Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) provisionally closed the day’s trade at 9,763.05 points — higher by 97.25 points, or 1.01 per cent.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 31,510.62 points, provisionally closed at 31,715.64 points — up 355.01 points, or 1.13 per cent, from its previous close at 31,360.63 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 31,768.39 points — a new record — and a low of 31,471.41 points during the intra-day trade.

The BSE market breadth was bullish — with 1,550 advances and 1,096 declines.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India late Friday banned holders of offshore derivatives tied to the nation’s equities from taking unhedged exposure and said existing bets must be liquidated by the end of 2020 or by the date of maturity of the instrument.

“The market rally indicates two things: one is that some investors are covering their short positions after the regulator’s directives and second is the bullish trend, that’s willing to ignore the negatives,” said Sushant Kumar, a fund manager at RAAY Global Investments in Mumbai.

Foreign and domestic funds have purchased more than $14 billion of Indian shares in 2017, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s helped push the Sensex to multiple records this year and made it the best-performing major market index in Asia.

The S&P BSE MidCap Index gained 0.4 per cent, while the S&P BSE Small Cap Index rose 0.6 per cent to a record. Twelve of the 13 sector indexes compiled by BSE advanced, led by the S&P BSE Communication Technology Index and the S&P BSE Information Technology Index, which gained 1.6 per cent each. — Agencies