Sensex hits new high

Indian equity market scaled new highs on the first day of the fiscal year 2020. Following global cues, the BSE Sensex and Nifty50 were up 0.81 and 0.62 per cent in the morning session on Monday.

The BSE Sensex was at 38,988.01, up by more than 315.10 points or 0.81 per cent. The market opened at 38,858.88 and hit a new 52-week high of 38,993.45. Among the top contributors to this gain were index heavyweight ICICI Bank, contributing 55.29 points, Infy 45.67 points, L&T 40.87 points, TCS 29.39 points and HDFC Bank 20.93 points.

The 50 stock index Nifty was trading at 11,705.30, up by 81.40 points or 0.70 per cent. There were 37 advances as compared to 13 declines on Nifty. Among the top gainers on Nifty were Tata Motors, Hindalco up by more than per cent, and Vedanta, GAIL and Tata Steel up by 4.17, 3.12 and 2.62 per cent, respectively. Among the top losers were IOC down by 2.79, while IndiaBulls Housing, Coal India, ZEEL, Eicher were down more than 1 per cent.  

The broader market also participated in the rally with Nifty Midcap 100 moving up by 0.88 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 showing a gain of 1.29 per cent.

Sectorally, the Metal index Nifty Metal was surging with gains of 2.51 per cent, followed by Nifty IT and Auto up by 1.33 and 1.31 per cent, respectively. The Nifty Bank index was up by 173 points or 0.57 per cent. All the sectoral indices were in the green in the morning session.

The upsurge in the market can be attributed to strong positive cues from Wall Street on Friday. Also, China’s Purchasing Manager Indices (PMIs) for the month of March registered better-than-expected growth. Increase in the US new housing sales and progress in US-China trade talk also fuelled the gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 0.82 per cent, while NASDAQ was up by 0.78 per cent, S&P 500 was up by 0.67 per cent on Friday. While the Japan-based Nikkei and Shanghai Composite were up by 1.53 and 2.29 per cent on Monday morning.