Sensex, Nifty accelerate as FMCG stocks rally

The benchmark BSE Sensex rose further by 106 points following a rally in FMCG, consumer durables and capital goods stocks after the GST Council finalised rates for bulk of the goods and services last week. The 30-share index closed at 30,570.97 points, up by 106.05 points, or 0.35 % over the last close. The index had gained 30 points on May 19.

The wider Nifty of National Stock Exchange gained 10.35 points, or 0.11 % to end at 9,438.25 after shuttling between 9,498.65 and 9,427.90 intra-day. Gains in FMCG stocks like ITC, which surged over 6%, IT stocks and Larsen & Toubro helped Sensex to advance for a second day. The FMCG sector continued to remain buyers fancy on the back of the GST Council fixing rates for most of the items last week. Common use products such as hair oil, soaps and toothpaste would cost less from July 1 when GST is expected to roll out, brokers said.

Hindustan Unilever gained over 1 %. Trading sentiment also got a boost after the defence ministry last week broadly finalised a policy under which select private firms will be roped in to build military platforms like submarines and fighter jets in India in partnership with foreign entities. The BSE 30-share Sensex resumed on a positive note and touched the day's high of 30,712.15 but it shed some gains on profit-booking and hit a low of 30,516.87 before settling at 30,570.97, up 106.05 points. Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 988.70 crore on May 19, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

Among the sectoral index, FMCG rose the most by surging 3.09 % as stocks of ITC Ltd, Nestle, Britannia, Marico and Dabur India gained between 0.54 and 6.21 %. Consumer durables index rose (0.61 %), capital goods (0.50 %), teck (0.34 %) and IT (0.34 %). Of the 30 Sensex stocks, L&T surged 1.61 %, Adani Ports (up 1.36 %), Tata Motors (up 1.23 %), HDFC Bank (up 1.02 %), TCS (0.90 %), Reliance Ind (up 0.40 %), Wipro (up 0.27 %), Axis Bank (0.24 %) and Infosys (0.19 %).

Stocks of state-run lenders Bank of India crashed 11.23 % despite the company narrowing net loss to Rs 1,045.54 crore for the fourth quarter of last fiscal. SBI lost 4.46 %, Bank of Baroda fell by 3.13 %, Allahabad Bank lost 4.78 %, Syndicate Bank shed 4.95 % and IDBI Bank fell 3.99 %.

The broader markets, however, remained under pressure as investors indulged in cutting their bets at prevailing levels with a view to book profits, pulling down the BSE mid-cap index by 1.21 % and small-cap index by 1.14%. In the Asian region, the key indices such as Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.86 %, Japan's Nikkei by 0.45 %, while Shanghai Composite finished 0.48 %. In the Europe, Paris CAC rose 0.07 %, while Frankfurt's up 0.04 % in their early deals.