Sensex, Nifty close at record highs; IT, consumer durable stocks lead gains

Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty closed at record all time highs on Monday propelled by gains in IT stocks amid positive domestic and global cues. Factors such as signing of first phase of US-China trade deal this week, Infosys reporting strong earnings in Q3 and positive domestic macro data helped Sensex, Nifty scale fresh closing highs in trade today.

While Sensex rose 259 points to 41,859 level against previous close of 41,599, Nifty gained 81 points to 12,337. Earlier in the day, benchmark indices hit their fresh all-time highs of 41,899 and 12,337 rising 300 points and 81 points, respectively. Sensex opened 111 points higher at 41,788 and Nifty gained 40 points to 12,296. It remained in the green throughout the session and closed at new peak.

Infosys (4.76%), IndusInd Bank (3.34%), Bharti Airtel (2.55%) and HUL (2.11%) were the top Sensex gainers. TCS (1.03%), SBI (0.50%) and Bajaj Auto (0.38%) fell the most on Sensex.

On Nifty, Infosys (4.07%), Coal India (2.07%) and Wipro (1.67%) were the top Nifty gainers.

YES Bank (6.26%), Tata Motors (1.83%) and Bharti Infratel (1.54%) were top losers on the index.

Infosys share price rises over 4% on strong Q3 earnings, clean chit to top executives

Ajit Mishra, VP, Research at Religare Broking said, "As geo-political tensions between US and Iran have subsided, investors' focus is likely to shift towards domestic developments such as Q3 earnings and announcement of macro data. Hence, we expect stock specific activity will be on a higher side. Meanwhile, investors will also continue to track rupee and crude oil price movement."

Market breadth was positive with 1,544 stocks rising against 984 falling on BSE.  On Nifty, 36 stocks ended higher against 14 trading in the red.

On Friday, Sensex closed 147 points higher at 41,599 and Nifty climbed 40 points to end at 12,256. Mid cap and small cap indices ended 131 points higher at 15,290 and 134 points higher at 14,282 on BSE.

Infosys share price closed 4.76% higher at Rs 773.40 today after the IT major posted better than expected profit in the third quarter of current fiscal and its audit panel found no evidence of financial wrongdoings or misconduct on part of company's executives.

IT and consumer durables stocks led the gains with their BSE indices rising 291 points and 222 points, respectively. All 19 sectoral indices on BSE closed in green. BSE IT index ended 259 points higher at 41,859. Nifty IT index too gained 266 points to 16,225 today.

However, YES Bank stock fell over 8.5% intra day after the lender on January 10 said Uttam Prakash Agarwal, independent director and chairman of YES Bank's Audit Committee, has resigned.

Agarwal cited deteriorating corporate governance standards and compliance failure in the bank as the reason for his resignation. The lender said it was reviewing 'fit and proper' status of Agarwal for appointment on the board as directed by the Reserve Bank of India and he quit prior to the commencement of proceedings of the meeting.

The stock fell to Rs 41.22 level intra day before recovering some ground and closing 6% lower  at Rs 42.10 on BSE. Positive macro data lifted sentiment on Sensex and Nifty. After contracting for three months in a row, the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) recorded a growth of 1.8 per cent in November, mainly on account of improvement in the manufacturing sector, as per government data released after market hours on Friday. The rupee appreciated 12 paise to 70.82 per US dollar (intra-day).

Siddhartha Khemka, Head-Retail Research at Motilal Oswal said, "On the global front, the long-awaited phase one trade deal between the US and China is set to be signed this week while geo-political tension between US-Iran has subsided. Thus going ahead, investors can expect stock specific action as the Q3 earnings season unfolds."

"Technically, Nifty formed a bullish candle on daily scale. Overall trend of the market is positive and supports are gradually shifting higher. Now, it has to continue to hold above 12220 -12250 levels for an up move towards 12400 then a fresh rally towards 12500 zones; while on the downside major support is seen at 12200 then 12150 levels," Khemka added.

On a net basis, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net of Rs 578.28 crore on Friday, and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net sellers to the tune of Rs 251.74 crore, provisional data available with NSE showed.

213 stocks hit their upper circuits compared to 211 reaching their lower circuits. 79 stocks hit their 52- week highs against 82 falling to their 52-week lows on BSE. Sensex and Nifty followed their Asian counter parts in early trade today which rose ahead of signing of first phase of US-China trade deal this week.

Later, European markets were also trading higher on the positive outcome of US-China standoff related to trade deal.

In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.7% to 3,115.57 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.1% to 28,954.94. Seoul's Kospi advanced 1% to 2,229.26.

By Aseem Thapliyal