Sensex closes at record high
Gaining for the fifth straight session, the Indian equity benchmarks ended a volatile day of trade in the green terrain on Monday, with the Sensex hitting its record closing high and the Nifty shutting shop above the crucial 11,900 mark.
Trading for the day began on a firm note, tracking strong gains in other Asian markets. Traders were encouraged with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that India is among the top 10 destinations for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the world and received $286 billion of FDI in the last five years. Traders also got a boost with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) published data showing that India's forex reserves increased by $1.832 billion in the week ended October 25 to a new lifetime high of $442.583 billion, helped by a jump in core currency assets and value of gold.
On the global front, the Asian markets ended mostly in the green, while European markets too traded firm, as growing optimism over U.S.-China trade talks and upbeat U.S. job data boosted global investors' appetite for risk assets. Back home, power stocks were in focus with a report stating that power producers' total outstanding dues owed by distribution companies rose by around 37% to Rs69,558 crore in September 2019 yoy, reflecting stress in the sector.
Meanwhile, the finance ministry in its latest report has showed that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection declined by 5.29 per cent to Rs95,380 crore in the month of October 2019, as against Rs 1,00,710 crore in the same month a year ago. Though, GST collection has increased by 3.77 per cent in comparison to September 2019, when it was Rs 91,916 crore. This is the third consecutive month when GST mop-up remained below the Rs 1 lakh crore mark, despite October being a festive month.
The BSE Sensex ended at 40301.96, up by 136.93 points or 0.34%. The broader indices ended mixed; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.02%, while Small cap index was up by 0.15%.
The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Metal (up by 2.91%), Telecom (up by 2.10%), Basic Materials (up by 1.30%), IT (up by 0.86%) and TECK (up by 0.83%), while Auto (down by 1.29%), Consumer Discretionary Goods & Services (down by 0.80%), Realty (down by 0.65%), FMCG (down by 0.59%) and Consumer Durables (down by 0.49%) were the top losing indices on the BSE.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys (up by 3.05%), Vedanta (up by 2.88%), HDFC (up by 2.48%), Tata Steel (up by 2.33%) and ONGC (up by 2.22%). On the flip side, Maruti Suzuki (down by 2.54%), Hero MotoCorp (down by 2.34%), Indusind Bank (down by 2.01%), Tata Motors (down by 1.57%) and Power Grid (down by 1.32%) were the top losers.