Sensex breezes past 36,000, Nifty tops 11,050; bank, IT stocks rally

Domestic equity indices hit yet another peak on Dalal Street on Tuesday with Sensex and Nifty closing at fresh record high levels, taking their winning streak to a fifth straight session.


BSE Sensex closed at 36,139.98 up 341 points and Nifty50 closed 117 points higher at 11,083.70.


Metal stocks led the rally with stocks such as JSPL (up 10.67 per cent), JSW Steel (up 5.47 per cent), Vendata (up 5.21 per cent), SAIL (up 4.81 per cent) and Hindalco (up 3.88 per cent) on NSE. Nifty Metal (up 4.07 per cent) emerged as the top sectoral gainer of the day.

Rally in PSU Bank stocks such as PNB (up 5.68 per cent), Bank of Baroda (up 5.13 per cent), Syndicate Bank (up 3.95 per cent), SBI (up 3.93 per cent), Indian Bank, (up 3.89 per cent), Union Bank (up 3.53 per cent) and Canara Bank (up 3.25 per cent) also boosted sentiment.

Barring Nifty Media (down 0.25 per cent), all sectoral indices ended the day in green.



“The bulls continued to charge uphill on Tuesday. While the ongoing corporate earnings and expectations from Budget 2018 took centre stage for domestic investors, foreign sentiment was buoyed after the US legislators struck a deal to end the government shutdown and as the International Monetary Fund revised its forecast for world economic growth by 0.2 percentage points to 3.9% for both 2018 and 2019,” said Karthikraj Lakshmanan, Senior Fund Manager – Equities, BNP Paribas MF.


Broader markets also remained upbeat amid earnings seasons and run-up to the Budget. BSE Midcap index added 202.23 points at 18,078.73 due to stocks such as JSPL, Biocon, Havells, Vakrangee, SAIL and Indian Bank. At the same time, BSE Smallcap index closed at 19,651.16, up 43 points.


Top smallcap gainers of the day were RML, Vimta Laboratories, Venkys, Delta Corp, Rane Engine and Panacea Biotec, surging over 10 per cent each.

Shares of Havells India jumped 5.63 per cent to Rs 583.25 after the company posted standalone net profit of Rs 194.36 crore for the December quarter.

Meanwhile, state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp got government's approval for selling its stake in IOC and GAIL to help fund the Rs 36,915 crore acquisition of HPCL.

Globally, Japan's Nikkei ended at 24,124.15, up 1.3 per cent, its highest level in more than 26 years, with real estate and precision machinery stocks leading the gains.

Euro zone stocks also reached their highest in a decade. Germany's DAX jumped more than 0.9 per cent at the open and touched a record 13,596, Reuters reported.