A surge in some strong blue chips pushed up the benchmark equity market indices to new three-month high on Friday with RIL recording a new high of 500 points even though India reported 13,586 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours being the highest so far in a single day.
Sexsex rose by 1.53 per cent or 524 points to close at 34,732 while Nifty went up 1.51 per cent or 153 points to register 10,244 at close.
Investors confidence got a boost after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a joint meeting Friday with the opposition parties on the Indo-China border row. However, experts cautioned that the markets could remain volatile during the next few days and investors would watch the situation continuously.
India’s most sought after company RIL rose past the $150 billion mark for the first time in the country’s history after its shares rallied 8 per cent to a record high of Rs 1788.60. The shares rallied after the company announced on Friday that it had achieved its net debt-free status much ahead of the deadline of March 2021, mainly due to record investment in Jio platforms.
RIL raised more than Rs 168,818 crores in 58 days through Rs 115,693.95 crores collected from investors in Jio and another Rs 53,124.20 crores from a Rights issue. Along with the stake sale to BP in the petro-retail JV, the total fund raised is in excess of Rs 1.75 lakh crore , the company said in a press release here on Friday.
Sensex went up by 1.53 per cent or 524 points to close at 34,732 while Nifty rose 1.51 per cent or 153 points to close at 10,244.
Altogether 18 Sensex stocks closed higher. Financials also helped in Sensex’s gains. Private lenders ICICI and HDFC Bank rose 3.88 per cent and 1.14 Per cent respectively. Bajaj Finance went up 6.74 per cent. However, Lender city Union Bank dropped 7.19 per cent after it reported a loss for the fourth quarter ending March comped to a profit a year back.
Significantly, gainers were double the number of losers on BSE. Midcap and Smallcap indices on BSE rose 1.03 per cent and 1.37 per cent respectively.
BSE Realty index was the top sectoral gainer as it went up by 6.36 per cent. BSE Energy followed next with a 5.05 per cent gain. However, BSE IT and Consumer durables dipped 0.40 per cent and 0.07 per cent respectively.
Indiabulls Housing Finance went up by 31.75 per cent after RBI proposed changes in regulations for housing finance companies which make easier for Complying companies to raise capital.
Foreign portfolio investors sold equities worth $265 million over the past five trading sessions while domestic institutional investors bought $457 million worth of equities during the same period.
Experts have warned the investors to be careful as the markets would remain volatile in view of the impending tensions at the border due to Indo-China conflict.
