Unstoppable bull run! Sensex, Nifty hit fresh lifetime highs led by gains in RIL & banking stocks

Indian benchmark equity indices, Sensex and Nifty50, opened with fresh record highs on Monday, led by index heavyweight Reliance Industries and banking stocks.

The BSE Sensex was trading 321 points, or 0.42%, higher at 77,014. The Nifty50 was up 110 points, or 0.47%, trading at 23,400 around 9:19 am. This is the first time that Sensex has hit the 77,000 mark.


Reliance Industries, Axis Bank, Power Grid, SBI, and Kotak Mahindra Bank emerged as the leading contributors to the Sensex's gains in early trade. However, Infosys, TCS, HCL Tech, and Tech Mahindra exerted downward pressure on the index.

Barring Nifty IT, all sectoral indices opened higher. Nifty IT fell 0.9% in early trade after strong U.S. monthly jobs data fanned worries of delayed rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

IDBI Bank witnessed a notable surge of 5.5% after receiving an income tax order that determined a refund of Rs 2,702 crore for the assessment year 2016-17.

On the other hand, Mphasis experienced a decline of 4% following reports of Blackstone offloading a 15.6% stake in the IT firm.

Experts View
"It is important to understand that the major driving force in this bull market is the Indian retail investors including HNIs. Big selling by FIIs is getting eclipsed by the aggressive buying of DIIs and retail investors. The fact that retail investors bought equity for Rs 21179 crores on June 4th, the day Nifty tanked 5.9%, indicates the buying power and optimism of the retail investors," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

"FII selling on concerns of high valuations will be easily absorbed by DII plus retail buying. So, if FIIs swim against this trend, they will underperform in one of the best performing stock markets in the world. That said, retail investors should not chase highly valued mid and small caps. Safety is in largecaps," Vijayakumar suggested.

Deven Mehata, Research Analyst at Choice Broking, said, "Nifty can find support at 23,200 followed by 23,100 and 23,000. On the higher side, 23,400 can be an immediate resistance, followed by 23,500 and 23,600."

Global Markets
Asian stocks sank on Monday as traders heavily pared back on bets for Federal Reserve rate cuts this year given a still-tight U.S. labour market.

Trading was thinned in Asia with Australia, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan out for public holidays, but MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan still slumped 0.46%.

U.S. futures eased slightly, with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures down about 0.03% each.

FII/DII Tracker
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) turned net buyers on June 7 as they bought Indian equities worth Rs 4,391.2crore, while domestic institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 1,289.75 crore on the same day.

Crude Oil
Oil prices nudged lower for a second straight session on Monday, weighed down by a firmer dollar as expectations of interest rate cuts were pushed out further following strong U.S. jobs data on Friday.

Brent crude futures and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures slipped 4 cents to $79.58 and $75.49 a barrel, respectively.

Currency Watch
The Indian rupee fell 10 paise to 83.50 against the US dollar in early trade. The dollar index, which tracks the movement of the greenback against a basket of six major world currencies, rose 0.39% to 105.29 level.

(With inputs from agencies)
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)