Markets cheer government's eco agenda, Sensex, Nifty close at new peaks

The benchmark Sensex rose for the third straight day and closed 183.75 points up at new closing peak of 25,580.21 enthused by Narendra Modi-led goverment's investor friendly economic agenda. Bajaj Auto, Coal India and L&T led the 20 Sensex gainers.

Ten of the twelve BSE sectoral indices ended in the green with realty, power, capital goods and consumer durables notching up the best gains. Investor wealth rose about Rs 1 lakh crore as over 2,300 stocks rose of the 3,167 traded today on BSE. Surpassing all previous records, the NSE Nifty crossed the 7,600 points for the first time on continued fund inflows. Impressive US jobs report and an upward revision of Japanese economic growth and last week's ECB stimulus to boost the eurozone economy, also aided the domestic sentiment.

President Pranab Mukherjee today expressed government's commitment to put India back on high growth path, while containing inflation and making tax regime non-adversarial. "Positive remarks from President Pranab Mukherjee in his speech, indicating necessary reforms to be taken which will be growth oriented, boosted the market sentiment," said Nidhi Saraswat, Senior Research Analyst, Bonanza Portfolio Ltd. The 30-share BSE index climbed 183.75 points, or 0.72% to close at a new lifetime high of 25,580.21 after hitting an intra-day new record high of 25,644.77. The Sensex's previous closing peak was 25,396.46 hit on Friday.

In three days, Sensedx has now gained nearly 775 points. The NSE Nifty breached the 7,600 mark for the first time and scaled a fresh record high of 7,673.70. It ended with a gain of 71.20 points, or 0.94%, at a new closing high of 7,654.60 -- breaking previous record closing of 7,583.40 and intra-day record high of 7,592.70 on last Friday. FIIs bought shares worth Rs 1,283.04 crore last Friday, taking investments to nearly Rs 50,000 crore this year. Sectorwise, the BSE Realty index rose by 5.61%, followed by Capital Goods index 2.33% higher, Power 2.15%, Consumer Durables 1.82% and Metal 1.73%, among others. In line with bullish sentiment, the BSE Small-cap index gained 2.13% and Mid-cap index rose 1.47%.

Stocks of infrastructure sector companies, led by 3.51% surge in Larsen and Toubro, were among prominent gainers. Punj Lloyd zoomed 8.56%, Welspun Corp 5.43% and Suzlon 4.95%.