SENSEX, NIFTY RIDE ON AUTO STOCKS TO HIT RECORD HIGHS
MUMBAI: Equity indices pared most of their early gains but managed to close at fresh lifetime highs on Monday as robust buying in RIL and auto stocks offset profit booking in the IT pack.
Rising for the third straight session, the 30-share BSE Sensex ended 29.41 points or 0.05% higher at its new closing peak of 60,077.88. Intra-day, it soared to an all-time high of 60,412.32. On similar lines, the broader NSE Nifty inched up 1.90 points or 0.01% to end at its fresh lifetime high of 17,855.10.
Maruti Suzuki was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying 6.53%, followed by M&M, Bajaj Auto, NTPC, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and UltraTech Cement.
On the other hand, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv, Infosys, L&T, Nestle India and HUL were among the main laggards, shedding up to 4.58%. The market breadth was negative, with 17 of the 30 Sensex components ending in the red, while 13 mustered gains.
“Domestic equities traded range-bound amid positive cues from global equities. Heavy profit-booking in information technology and pharma nullified the impact of sharp recovery in auto stocks,” said Binod Modi, head—Strategy at Reliance Securities.
Auto stocks witnessed strong rebound as continued underperformance for last couple of months, expectations of improvement in demand scenario from October and positive commentary from select companies about semiconductor issue made investors buy quality names in OEMs, he noted.
Vinod Nair, head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said, “Due to profit booking in IT, Pharma and FMCG, domestic markets failed to uphold its winning streak to close flat in a volatile session.”
“Realty stocks continued its rally on positive developments in the sector while the sentiments in the auto sector were lifted on expectation of better sales numbers for September. The market is also awaiting the release of August’s core sector output data and September’s manufacturing PMI data this week,” he added.