Midcap scrips steal show

The party continued on Dalal Street on Monday with over 500 stocks hitting their upper circuit limit on the Bombay Stock Exchange ( BSE) amidst growing expectation of a sharp revival in economic growth after the BJP led National Democratic Alliance ( NDA) registered an emphatic victory in the Lok Sabha elections.

Continuing with their winning streak, the Sensex surged to an all time high to end the trading session at 24,363.05, gaining 241.31 points or 1 per cent while the National Stock Exchange ( NSE) Nifty climbed 60.55 points or 0.84 per cent to close the day at 7,263.55 points.

However, it was the small and mid cap stocks that stole the limelight on the domestic bourses on Monday with the BSE small cap and mid cap index soaring 5.82 per cent and 4.19 per cent respectively.

“The small and mid cap stocks remained laggards in the pre- election rally. With most of the large cap stocks hovering around their lifetime highs, investors are shifting their focus towards small and mid cap counters with sound fundamentals. There are plenty of stocks in the small and mid cap segment that are undervalued and we could see more action in this space going forward,” said Alex Mathews, head of research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

The broader markets saw 2,135 stocks that traded on BSE ending the day with impressive gains as compared to just 715 stocks that declined. India’s volatility index ( VIX), which measures investors expectation about the near term volatility slumped 15.08 per cent on the National Stock Exchange.

After pumping in over ` 3,500 crore on Friday, foreign institutional investors ( FII) purchased shares worth ` 1,350 crore on Monday, the provisional data from the stock exchanges showed.

After Deutsche Bank, foreign brokerages like Citi, Nomura and Goldman Sachs also raised their target for the Sensex.

While Citi expects the Sensex to touch 26,300 by December 2014, Nomura has raised its Sensex target to 27,200 from its earlier projections of 24,700.