Sensex Surges 765 Points, Nifty Settles Above 16,900 For First Time

Indian equity markets surged to record highs on Monday, in line with global markets, after the US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated the US central bank could begin scaling back its bond buying program by year-end but did not give a firm timeline. Comments by Jerome Powell spurred buying interest in equities across the world as concerns over tight liquidity conditions going ahead eased, analysts said. The Sensex soared as much as 834 points to hit an all-time high of 56,958.27 and Nifty 50 index surpassed above its important psychological level of 17,900 for the first time.

The Sensex advanced 765 points to close at record high of 56,889.76 and Nifty 50 index jumped 226 points to settle at 16,931.

At the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole conference, Jerome Powell expressed caution about raising interest rates as the Fed tries to nurse the economy to full employment and would avoid chasing “transitory” inflation.

Following Mr Powell’s speech, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed at record highs for the fourth time this week driven by stocks in technology, communications, consumer discretionary and financials.

Back home, buying was visible across sectors as all the 19 sector gauges, barring the measure of information technology shares, ended higher led by the S&P BSE Telecom index’s over 3.5 per cent gain.

Banking, Financial Services, Energy, Healthcare, Utilities, Auto, Capital Goods, Consumer Durables, Metal, Oil & Gas and Power indices also advanced between 1.5-2.5 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed buying interest as the Nifty Midcap 100 index jumped nearly 2 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 1.5 per cent.

In the Nifty 50 index 43 shares ended higher.

Bharti Airtel was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 5 per cent to close at record high of Rs 625 after its board approved fund raising plan of up to Rs 21,000 crore via rights issue to existing shareholders. Bharti Airtel has priced rights issue at Rs 535 a share, a discount of around 10 per cent to Friday’s close of Rs 595.15.

Divi’s Labs, Axis Bank, Tata Steel, Coal India, Titan, ONGC, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India, Hindalco, Asian Paints, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors and Reliance Industries also rose 2-4 per cent.

On the flipside, Tech Mahindra, Nestle India, Eicher Motors, Infosys, Wipro, SBI Life and TCS were among the notable lowers.

The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,223 shares ended higher while 1,094 closed lower on the BSE.