Nifty touches new high, crosses 9,000 mark

Mumbai, March 3:

Continuing with the post-budget euphoria, the wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) Tuesday breached the 9,000-point mark in the intra-day trade for the first time.

The Nifty touched an intra-day high of 9,008.40 points, surpassing the previous record of 8,972.35 points on Monday. The index had earlier breached the 8,996.60 points mark on Jan 30.

On September 1, 2014, it had breached the 8,000 point mark for the first time. On May 12, 2014 the Nifty had crossed the 7,000 points mark.

On Tuesday the Nifty of the NSE closed the day’s trade up 39.50 points or 0.44 percent at 8,996.25 points.

The Nifty volatility index, India VIX stood at 15.4925 down around 2.24 percent.

According to market analysts, after a choppy trade in the morning session, the markets rebounded on the back of bargain buying mainly in the pharma, information technology (IT) and consumer durable sectors.

“The investors’ confidence has improved as Government intends to spend more and have a better place for business,” said Vinod Nair, head-fundamental research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

“Expectation continues to be high as budget session will add more teeth to ‘Make in India’. Due to improvement in government’s confidence we are seeing higher exposure in infrastructure and PSUBs (public sector undertaking banks).”

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex), too closed Tuesday’s trade with healthy gains. It closed the day’s trade 135 points or 0.46 percent up.

The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 29,500.19 points, closed at 29,593.73 points, up 134.59 points or 0.46 percent from the previous day’s close at 29,459.14 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 29,636.86 points and a low of 29,364.87 points in the intra-day trade.

Healthy buying was observed in healthcare, oil and gas, information technology (IT), technology, entertainment and media (TECK) and capital goods stocks.

However, auto, metal, bank and realty stocks came under selling pressure.

The S&P BSE healthcare index was up 214.72 points, followed by oil and gas index which was higher by 214.17 points, IT index rose 173.25 points, TECK index augmented by 81.50 points and capital goods index gained 68.41 points.

However, S&P BSE automobile index was down 171.82 points, metal index was lower by 68.65 points, bank index lost 61.57 points and realty index slipped 21.59 points.

The major Sensex gainers were: Reliance Industries, up 4.39 percent at Rs.901.65; Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), up 3.92 percent at Rs.2,774.70; Cipla, up 2.14 percent at Rs.730.60; Sun Pharma, up 2.01 percent at Rs.942.40; and Bajaj Auto, up 2 percent at Rs.2,116.15.

The losers were: Coal India, down 3.89 percent at Rs.379.35; Mahindra and Mahindra, down 3.26 percent at Rs.1,235.85; Axis Bank, down 2.34 percent at Rs.632.85; Tata Motors, down 1.63 percent at Rs.574.60; and NTPC, down 0.72 percent at Rs.158.40. IANS