An evening walk down Dalal Street

A sharp surge in FMCG, infrastructure, metals as well as PSU banks ensured that the market had no encounter with any sorts of Monday blues. The Sensex managed to close at record closing high and managed to surpass its record intraday high of 36,747 which it had achieved earlier.

Meanwhile, the Nifty has managed to end at over 6-month high, a level that was last seen around the Union Budget in 2018.

The day began on a subdued note as indices opened flat, tracking tepid global cues. But a surge in FMCG stocks, pushed by GST rate cut that was announced over the weekend, helped the market trade somewhat higher. There was rangebound movement seen through the day. However, a surge in other sectors in the last hour helped them to close the day on a strong note.

The 50-share index is currently 100 points away from record high of 11,171.55, while the Nifty Bank managed to hold 27,000.

The Sensex is up 222.23 points or 0.61% at 36718.60, while the Nifty is up 74.60 points or 0.68% at 11084.80. The market breadth is positive as 1533 shares advanced, against a decline of 1061 shares, while 180 shares are unchanged.

All sectoral indices, barring energy and IT, ended the day in the green. In the broader markets space, midcaps ended over a percent higher, a huge gain from the negative opening it had seen during the initial part of the session.

Among stocks, ITC, Vedanta and UPL were the top gainers, while Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto lost the most.

“Stock markets in India started the day and the week on an upbeat note as stocks edged higher in early trade boosted by the Narendra Modi government winning the no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha on Friday, 20 July 2018. Following a 12-hour debate in the Lower House, in a 451-member House, 126 members voted in favour of the motion while 325 votes went against it. Subsequently, market participants gave the equity markets a vote of confidence as well and took to buying equities today. Both the benchmark Sensex and the Nifty finally closed the day with gains of over 0.50%. Barring the IT index, all other sectoral indices on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed the day in the positive zone,” Abhijeet Dey, Senior Fund Manager – Equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund