Rising expectations of a stable government, led by the BJP, saw the Nifty and the Sensex close at all-time highs on Monday, adding over ₹1.35-lakh crore of market capitalisation over Friday.

The Nifty closed above the 7,000 level for the first time, at 7,014, up 2.27 per cent (155 points), after touching the day’s high of 7,020.

The Sensex closed at 23,551, up 2.42 per cent (557 points). Earlier, it had touched an intra-day high of 23,573.

The market sentiment rubbed off on the rupee, which closed at ₹60.05 a dollar, down two paise, on strong dollar demand during the second half of the day, after hitting an intra-day high of ₹59.53. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Government securities closed flat at 8.72 per cent

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought net equities worth ₹1,218 crore while domestic institutions followed suit, buying equities worth ₹93 crore.

Saurabh Mukherjea, CEO – Institutional Equities, Ambit Capital, said: “To position their portfolios correctly, most institutional investors are now trying to understand what economic policies we will see in the coming months.”

Retail investors on the BSE offloaded equities worth ₹194 crore.

“I have booked profit on most scrips that I own and sold those where my losses had narrowed down,” said Ashish Choudhary, a retail investor.

Volatility was down 1.59 per cent and the volatility index, India Vix, closed at 37.1050.

“Going forward, I expect markets to remain volatile, with the exit polls and then the final result on Friday,” said Rikesh Parikh, Vice-President, Motilal Oswal Securities.

All broader and sectoral indices closed in the green, barring pharma and healthcare.

It was a mixed bag for the Asian bourses on Monday, with Hong Kong and Shanghai closing in the green, while the Singapore and Malaysian bourses closed in the red.

European indices, the FTSE 100, CAC 40 and the Dax were trading in the green.

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