Sensex tops 19,700...Nifty pierces 5900

After taking a breather in the previous trading session, the Indian stock market began the week with a bang, well supported by rising global equities and FII inflows. The NSE Nifty closed above the 5900 levels for the first time in almost three months. The BSE Sensex ended above 19,700 on the back of all-round buying across sectors and is inching closer to the 20,000 milestone.

Capital Goods, IT, Auto and Banking stocks were among the major gainers. The BSE Mid-Cap and the BSE Small-Cap indexes outperformed the benchmark indices as traders seek value in outside the main indices.



"What was surprising was that a steep rise in crude oil prices also didn't bother the investors much. Also, inflation remains a major pressure point as do hardening interest rates. In addition, one has to see how the latest earnings season unfolds and whether the FIIs will remain loyal to the Indian markets or not. Sure, the key indices can head further north from here, but there could well be a few hiccups along the way," says Amar Ambani, Head of Research (India Private Clients) - IIFL.

The BSE Sensex ended at 19,701 gaining 281 points. It had earlier touched a day's high of 19,729 and a day's low of 19,449. It opened at 19,473. While, the NSE Nifty surged 82 points to close at 5,908.

M&M, HCL Tech, Cairn, J P Associat, HDFC Bank, TCS, IDFC, LT, Kotak Bank, ACC, Maruti, BHEL, Grasim, ONGC, Axis Bank and Jindal Steel are among the notable leaders on the BSE and NSE.

While, R Com, Hindunilever, Sesagoa, GAIL, Cipla, BPCL, Rel Infra, STER, HDFC and Bajaj Auto are among the notable losers on the BSE and NSE.

The gainers on the BSE-500 index were Patel Engr-S, Vascon Engineers, Onmobile Global, PSL and Fresenius Kabi.

Whereas, JMD Telefilms, Himadri Chemicals, Rajesh Exports, Dewan Housing and Allcargo Global are among the losers on the BSE-500 index.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, the BSE Capital Goods index was the top gainer, the index gained 2.3% followed by BSE IT index adding 2.1%, while, BSE Teck index gained 1.8%. BSE Mid-Cap index and BSE Small-Cap index gained 1.7% and 3% respectively.

The European markets were trading with a slight positive bias, the FTSE index was up 0.3%, CAC index was flat and DAX index was up 0.2%.