Sensex vaults 556 pts to 23551 pts; Nifty hits a record 7,014 pts

The 30-share BSE index Sensex rose 556.77 points (or 2.41 per cent) to trade at 23,551.00 at the close of trading today and the 50-share NSE index Nifty closed at 7,014.25, up 155.45 points or 2.27 per cent, amidst strong foreign capital inflows and buying by retail investors.

Indian markets continued their rally ahead of the exit poll results later today as markets pinned hopes on Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government coming to power after the last phase of Lok Sabha elections ended today.

The 30-scrip Sensex, which crossed the 23,000 points for the first time last week, opened trading today at 23,031.11 points, and ended at 23,551 points, gaining a record 556.77 points or 2.42 per cent from the previous day's close of 22,994.23 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 23,572.88 points and a low of 23,008.65 points in intra-day trading.

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the wider 50-scrip Nifty surged 155.45 points or 2.27 per cent to close at a record 7,014.25 points after hitting a high of 7,020.05 points.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have bought shares worth Rs1,268.78 crore, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

Traders said the market is moving mainly on expectations and that today's upward move was on the hops that the exit polls would show a favourable turnout for the BJP.

The results of the general elections will be announced May 16.

While all sectoral indices of the BSE gained, the rally was led by the automobile, bank, oil and gas, metal and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and consumer durables.

The S&P BSE automobile index gained 394.52 points, bank index surged by 392.29 points, capital goods index gained 349.73 points, oil and gas index went up by 309.89 points, metal index moved up by 241.18 points, FMCG index edged higher by 172.27 points, and consumer durables index zoomed 133.62 points.

The major Sensex gainers were Coal India (up 7.04 per cent at Rs330.80) HDFC Bank (up 4.59 per cent at Rs791.95), Tata Motors (up 4.09 per cent at Rs445), Hero MotoCorp (up 4.01 per cent at Rs2,304.55) and Maruti Suzuki (up 3.99 per cent at Rs2,051.40).

The main losers were Sun Pharma (down 1.73 per cent at Rs613.10), Cipla (down 1.26 per cent at Rs387.60), Hindalco Inds (down 0.52 per cent at Rs143), Wipro (down 0.14 per cent at Rs511.60) and Tata Consultancy Services (down 0.07 per cent at Rs2,159.70).

Across Asia, on the other hand, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.35 per cent down and China's Shanghai Composite Index lost 2.08 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended 1.82 per cent higher.

London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.41 per cent up and the French CAC 40 Index fell 1.04 per cent, while Germany's DAX Index lost by 0.15 per cent.