Markets were at fresh historic highs during Monday's opening bell in an aftermath of India's sixth bi-monthly monetary policy where a status quo was once again was announced. Both Sensex and Nifty 50 witness stellar gains led by broad-based buying. Auto and banking stocks were major drivers of the day with substantial gains added from IT, financials, capital goods, consumer goods and oil stocks. Also, positive global cues lifted the performance.
At around 09.36 am, Sensex was trading at 51,338.01 higher by 606.38 points or 1.20%. Meanwhile, Nifty 50 was performing at 15,101.25 up 177 or 1.19%.
In the early deals, Sensex has hit a new all-time high of 51409.36 and Nifty 50 clocked a fresh 52-week high of 15,119.25.
On Sensex,
M&M was the top gainer surging by 9.4% after quarterly result announcement. M&M was followed by Axis Bank soaring by 3%,
ONGC, IndusInd Bank and ICICI Bank advancing between 2-2.5%.
Other stocks that contributed to gains were -
Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, Power Grid, SBI, Titan, HDFC Bank and Ultratech Cement rising between 1-2%.
However, stocks like
NTPC, Bajaj Auto, Sun Pharma and HCL Tech were top underperformers down marginally.
A total of 140 companies are set to announce their Q3 financial performance today among which are - BPCL, Aditya Birla Fashion, Astrazeneca Pharma, Balkrishna Industries, Bombay Dyeing, Godrej Consumer Products, NMDC, Redington India, Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company, Sun TV Network, Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Usha Martin and Vakrangee.
On the sectoral indices front - BSE Bankex and BSE Auto have surged by 620 points and 660 points respectively. BSE Consumer Durables added 480 points gain, while BSE Capital Goods and BSE Oil Gas jumped over 210 points. BSE IT soared 130 points and BSE Finance saw nearly 100 points upside. BSE Metal also climbed 145 points.
MPC voted unanimously to keep the policy rates unchanged. RBI governor said the “accommodative” policy stance will continue. India's policy repo rate remained unchanged at 4%. Likewise, India's reverse repo rate remains unchanged at 3.35%. While the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate at 4.25%.
These decisions are in consonance to achieve the medium-term target for consumer price index (CPI) inflation of 4% within a band of +/- 2% while supporting growth.