Markets touch record high as Sensex closes at 31,109 and Nifty crosses 9,600 mark
The Bombay Stock Exchange reached 31,155.40 in morning trade on Monday.
The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex touched a record high on Monday to close at 31,109.28 and the National Stock Exchange Nifty crossed 9,600-mark for the first time. Continuing its record-breaking streak from the last session on Friday, the Sensex went up 81 points while Nifty rose 95 points and closed at 9,604.90.
The Sensex had opened on a negative note and traded below the 31,000-mark briefly, but it bounced back 127.19 points up, surpassing its previous high of 31,028 that it recorded on Friday. It had touched 31,155.40 in Monday’s morning trade. The 50-share NSE index also breached the record it had set on Friday of 9,595.
On Monday, the healthcare sector took a hit after Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd reported a 14% fall in its March-quarter profit. While the stocks of Sun Pharma fell as much as 11%, Aurobindo Pharma went down by 3.67% to close at Rs 513.70 per share.
The stocks of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications also fell over 20%, two days after the company recorded a Rs 966-crore loss for the quarter that ended in March 2017. The loss for the 2016-2017 fiscal year stood at Rs 1,283 crore as against the net profit of Rs 660 crore in 2015-2016, the telecom operator said.
HDFC was the top performer on the Sensex, gaining around 3.3%, followed by Hindustan Unilever Limited (+3.07%), Power Grid (+2.76%) and ITC (+2.38%). On the NSE, Power Grid Corporation of India Limited performed the best by going up 3.83%, followed by Cipla (+3.49%), HDFC (+3.16) and Hindustan Unilever (+3.08). Besides Sun Pharma, Tech Mahindra (-11.44%), Adani Ports (-5.80%) and Bank of Baroda (-3.46%) did badly on Nifty.
Asian markets traded flat following the latest ballistic missile test conducted by North Korea.