Markets Vault to Record Highs; Post Seventh Week of Gains

Mumbai: Benchmarks extended their gravity-defying run for the third straight session on Friday as healthy earnings by bluechips and GST rationalisation gave fresh impetus to the buying momentum.

The BSE Sensex spurted 251.29 points to end at its fresh lifetime high of 35,511.58, while the broader NSE Nifty advanced 77.70 points to record 10,894.70. Intra-day, it breached the 10,900-mark for the first time.

Investor sentiment got a leg-up after the GST Council on Thursday cut the tax rate on 29 goods and 54 categories of services.

Encouraging third-quarter results by bluechips like HDFC Bank and ITC added to the cheer.

Opening higher, the 30-share Sensex surged to an all-time high of 35,542.17 on a string of encouraging earnings. It finally ended 251.29 points, or 0.71 per cent higher at 35,511.58 -- bettering its previous record closing of 35,260.29 hit yesterday.

The index has now rallied 740.53 points in three straight sessions.

The 50-share NSE Nifty settled higher by 77.70 points, or 0.72 per cent, at 10,894.70. The index surpassed its previous lifetime closing high of 10,817 recorded in yesterday's session. Intra-day, it touched an all-time high of 10,906.85. It was the seventh week of gains in a row for the markets. The Sensex recorded a significant rise of 919.19 points, or 2.65 per cent while the Nifty gained 213.45 points, or 1.99 per cent, in the week.

"Government's decision to cut GST rate for few more items and a good start to earnings season added energy in the market.

"Market is anticipating a sea change in the earnings with a growth of 15-20 per cent in PAT led by revamp in businesses and low base effect. Moreover, positive trend in global market and drop in crude prices influenced buying pattern," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have been supporting the ongoing record-run by infusing sizeable capital. They bought shares worth Rs 1,894.99 crore while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold equities worth Rs 657.46 crore yesterday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

On the sectoral front, bankex jumped 1.52 per cent, followed by realty (1.26 per cent), infrastructure (1.19 per cent), PSU (1.06 per cent), capital goods (0.92 per cent), metal (0.91 per cent) oil and gas (0.87 per cent), power (0.46 per cent), healthcare (0.43 per cent), FMCG (0.42 per cent), IT (0.36 per cent) and auto (0.15 per cent).

In the Sensex space, Adani Ports took the pole position by surging 4.68 per cent in reaction to strong Q3 earnings, followed by Yes Bank at 2.37 per cent. The private sector lender yesterday reported 22 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 1,076.87 crores for the third quarter ended December 2017. HDFC Bank too gained 1 per cent after it reported a 20.1 per cent growth in net profit to Rs 4,642.6 crore for the third quarter of the current fiscal.

ITC Ltd rose 0.37 per cent after the company on Friday reported a 16.75 per cent rise in its net profit at Rs 3,090.20 crore for the December quarter. Reliance Industries too gained 1.09 per cent ahead of its earnings.

ICICI Bank, SBI, TCS, Kotak Bank, Axis Bank, L&T, M&M, Dr Reddy's, Bajaj Auto, Wipro, Bharti Airtel, Coal India, HUL and Asian Paints recorded gains of up to 2.15 per cent. In the broader markets too investors were busy creating fresh positions, lifting the small-cap index by 0.88 per cent and mid-cap by 0.77 per cent.

Coming to other Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended 0.41 per cent higher, while Japan's Nikkei gained 0.19 per cent. Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.38 per cent. In Europe, Frankfurt's DAX rose 0.87 per cent, while Paris CAC 40 was up 0.45 per cent in their early deals. London's FTSE too rose 0.11 per cent.