Sensex and Nifty at fresh highs

Banks and metal stocks help benchmark indices scale new highs. The BSE Sensex touched a high of 38676.33, while Nifty hit a high of 11,677.15 points. The boarder market also participated in the rally.          

Metal stocks are reacting to higher prices in the global commodity markets, coupled with an improvement in domestic demand. Among the frontrunner on Nifty50 were Hindalco trading at Rs. 229.30 per share, up 3.24 per cent, Tata Steel at Rs. 585.00, up 1.66 per cent, Vedanta at Rs. 226.10 per share, up 0.96 per cent. Nifty Metal was at 3,544.15, up by 1.81 per cent, while BSE Metal was at 13437.53, up by 1.77 per cent, led by NMDC, Nalco and Jindal Steel.

Banking stocks were buzzing on the fact that all stressed assets worth more than Rs. 2,000 crore are now to be referred to the NCLT, as RBI’s deadline ends on August 27, Monday. The central bank had asked banks to resolved stressed assets in six month period through a circular on February 12. Most of these NPAs belong to the power sector. The power producers filed petitions against RBI’s circular in the Allahabad High Court, a ruling on the same is awaited on Tuesday.

On expectation of quicker resolution of NPAs, the banking sector was upbeat. The benchmark for banking stocks, Nifty Bank was trading at 28,236.10, up 401.40 point or 1.44 and  Nifty50 was at 11,669.60, up by 112.50 or 0.97 per cent, at 11:56 AM IST. The banking sector was led by ICICI Bank at Rs. 340.30 per share, up 3.09 per cent, SBI at Rs. 308.50, up 2.73 per cent, Yes Bank at Rs. 382.75, up 2.16 per cent and Kotak Bank, IndusInd and Axis Bank were up more than 1 per cent each.

In terms of broader market, the mid-cap and small-cap stocks also participated in the rally. BSE Mid-Cap and BSE Small-Cap was up by 0.80 per cent, while Nifty Mid-Cap 50 and Mid-Cap 100 were up 1 per cent each, with Nifty Small-Cap 100 up by 0.90 per cent on Monday pre-lunch hours.