Sensex up 300 points, Nifty at 2019 high

Markets seem to be excited by the fact that the Election Commission has declared the dates for the Lok Sabha Elections 2019, which would be conducted in seven phases from April 11 through May 19. The BSE Sensex was at 36,988.68, up by 317.25 points, while Nifty50 was at 11,138.80, up 103.40 points, the highest level since the beginning of 2019.

On the BSE Sensex, stocks of Reliance, ICICI Bank, SBI, HDFC twins were the biggest contributor to the index gains. While the top gainers on the index were  Coal India, SBI, ONGC which were up more than 2 per cent and Hero Moto, Vedanta and M&M were up more than 1 per cent on BSE.

Sectorially, banks, FMCG and pharma stocks were gaining.

This election will have the feature of ‘voter-verifiable paper audit trail’ (VVPAT) at all polling stations. The electronic voting machines (EVMs) would carry the photograph of all candidates to help voters identify their leaders. Also, all political advertisements on social media will need pre-certification. 

Also, in an effort to clean up the democratic process, candidates contesting the Lok Sabha polls, who have criminal antecedents, are required to publish and broadcast information regarding their criminal past in newspapers and on TV channels during election campaigns on three occasions. Parties are all required to publish information regarding their candidate's criminal record, both their website and in newspapers and TV channels. 

In the early morning session on the first day of the week, at 9:40 hours, the BSE Sensex was at 36,953.64, up by 282.21 points or 0.77 per cent, while Nifty50 NIFTY 50 11,126.70, up by 91.30 points or 0.83 per cent. The most traded index Bank Nifty was quoting 27,963.15, up by 201.35 points or 0.73 per cent on Monday.