Sensex nears 17-k mark
What seemed to be a distant dream a month ago is now close to becoming reality. The 30-share Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange is just 154.17 points away from touching 17,000. It took only four trading sessions for the benchmark index to reach 16.845.83 from 16k.
Market participants believe that the newfound vigour of the Sensex is due to the strong inflow of FII funds since the US Fed announced a 50 bps cut in its key interest rate. Since September 19, according to Sebi figures, FIIs have been net buyers of Indian equity worth more than Rs 5,037 crore (about $1.25 billion) in just three trading sessions.
Most of the buying took place in index heavyweights. Reliance group stocks, belonging to both Ambani brothers, contributed significantly to the Sensex gains. The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group crossed Rs 2 lakh crore in market capitalisation on Monday. It has added almost $7 billion in M-Cap in the last six sessions.
In the last four trading sessions, the Sensex gained 1,200.52 points, or 7.66%. On Monday, the Sensex closed the day at 16,845.83 points, gaining 281.60 points, or 1.70%, after touching a lifetime high of 16,869.64 points.
The broader S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange gained 94.65 points, or 1.96%, to end the day at 4,932.20 points.
Jignesh Desai, head of institutional sales, at SBICAP Securities, said, ?Some amount of profit-booking can be expected at every rise. But there is a strong positive momentum with FII investment coming in frontline stocks and this trend could continue until the expiry of the derivative contract. After that, we could see profit-booking emerging in major frontline stocks.?
The market breadth still remained a major worrying factor for the market participants. On Monday on the BSE, a total of 1,474 stocks lost ground, compared to 1,305 stocks that advanced.