BSE Sensex crosses 35,000-mark

MUMBAI: The Santa rally in equities markets, usually seen during the last trading days of December, seems to have spilled over to, well, mid of January. On Wednesday, benchmark indices closed at record highs with the 30-share BSE Sensex surging over 310 points to close at 35,082 - the first time in its history - while the 50-share NSE index Nifty rose 88.1 points or 0.82 per cent to cross an all-time high of 10,788.55.

The surge was largely led by reports that the government has decided to reduce its borrowing binge to rein in fiscal deficit. Additional borrowing plan was lowered to Rs 20,000 crore from its earlier proposal to raise Rs 50,000 crore from the market.

“The lowering of additional borrowing requirement was welcomed by the market participants, with the BFSI segment leading the pack. It’s remarkable, markets are rising in the phase of adverse expectations and scaling the 35,000 mark for the Sensex is an important landmark,” said Dhiraj Relli, MD & CEO, HDFC Securities.

All sectoral indices on BSE ended higher with bank, capital goods and IT leading the gains, while Nifty PSU Bank rose to 4.17 per cent. Strong liquidity in the market following renewed buying by foreign fund inflows and better corporate earnings were driving the rally. Also, latest economic data on factory output that touched a 25-month high and better than expected core sector data added to the momentum. Domestic sentiments remain buoyant as investors expect a revival in manufacturing, construction and infrastructure, raising expectations that the full year GDP growth rate will overshoot the CSO estimate of 6.5 per cent.  
Meanwhile, Asian stocks refrained from a record high on Wednesday as the region’s resource shares were dented by falling oil and commodity prices, while bitcoin plunged to 10,000 on concerns that more number of countries are cracking down on crypto currencies.

Market movers
Among the gainers, Axis Bank, SBI, ICICI Bank led the pack, while Wipro, M&M, Kotak Bank and HDFC Bank stocks were major losers. All sectoral indices on BSE ended higher with bank, capital goods and IT leading the gains, while Nifty PSU Bank rose to 4.17 per cent