Sensex closes on record 21,000-plus high

Mumbai – A day after the principal opposition party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won three key state assembly elections, a key index of the Indian equities markets Monday closed! at a new closing high of 21,326.42 points.

This is the highest closing level so far of the Sensex which had touched a closing high of 21,196.81 points on Nov 1, 2013 and 21,239.36 points in the special Muhurat trade session two days later.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 21,416.67 points, closed at 21,326.42 points — up 329.89 points or 1.57 percent from its previous day’s close at 20,996.53 points.

The benchmark touched a high of 21,483.74 intra-day and a low of 21,282.64 points.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) too closed in positive territory gaining 104 points or 1.66 percent at 6,363.90 points.

The traders were seen bullish on the election results as the BJP is considered to be more business-friendly. These state elections also gave an insight into the upcoming general elections which are to be held in May 2014.

“The markets had a gap-up open! ing today on the back of the state election results and positive cues f! rom US markets,” said Sanjeev Zarbade, vice president-private client group research, Kotak Securities.

“Markets will watch out for other domestic issues like inflation and RBI’s take on interest rates. Further rise in crude price may act as a dampener.”

There was healthy buying support in bank, capital goods, automobile, oil and gas and metal stocks. However, consumer durables stocks declined.

The S&P BSE bank index zoomed by 391.06 points, followed by capital goods index which was up 322.59 points, automobile index was 168.76 points up, oil and gas index gained 149.28 points and metal index edged higher by 70.66 points.

However, consumer durables index closed 6.47 points lower.

Major Sensex gainers were: ICICI Bank, up 5.04 percent at Rs.191.60; Sesa Sterlite, up 5.04 percent at Rs.191.60; Larsen and Toubro (L&T), 4.52 percent at Rs.1,146.10; Maruti Suzuki, up 3.85 percent at Rs.1,763.45; and ONGC, up 3.48 percent at Rs.304.85.

Th! e main losers were: Jindal Steel, down 6.01 percent at Rs.266.50; Cipla, down 0.79 percent at Rs.385.35; Tata Steel, down 0.44 percent at Rs.420.75; and Hindustan Unilever, down 0.13 percent at Rs.560.10.

Among the Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei closed 2.29 percent up and China’s Shanghai Composite Index was higher by 0.05 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.29 percent.

In Europe, London’s FTSE 100 was trading 0.23 percent down, Germany’s DAX Index was higher by 0.09 percent and the French CAC 40 Index lost by 0.40 percent.