Sensex tops 33,300 for first time ever, SBI, ONGC jump up to 3%

Indian stock markets opened at record highs on Monday followed by the optimism over better-than-expected second-quarter earnings. BSE Sensex gained 102.88 points or 0.31% to open at 33,260.1 points while NSE Nifty advanced 30.8 points or 0.3% to start at 10,353.85 points. Among the Nifty companies Bharti Infratel, HDFC, Lupin, Tata Steel and UPL are scheduled to announce their Q2 results report card today. Within minutes of trading, the benchmark Sensex added 158.02 points to hit the all-time high of 33,315.24 and the broader Nifty jumped 47.85 points to mark the lifetime high of 10,370.9 points.

The stock of ONGC was among the top gainer on Sensex, zoomed as much as 3% after the state-run company reported a rise of 3.1% in the net profit for the July-September quarter to Rs 5,131 crore as compared to Rs 4,975 crore in the corresponding period last year. Other shares which also advanced include Reliance Industries, Maruti Suzuki, State Bank of India, Bharti Airtel and Tata Steel gained up to 1.5% while Kotak Mahindra Bank, Wipro, Cipla, Coal India, and Adani Ports lost up to 1%. Other major companies which are also lined up with their Q2 earnings are Bharat Electronics, Central Bank of India, IDFC, Kajaria Ceramics, LIC Housing Finance, Mahindra Lifespace Developers, Marico, Reliance Home Finance, Sintex Industries, Welspun Corp Wockhardt, Century Plyboards.

The stocks of heavyweight companies such as RIL, SBI, ONGC, Maruti Suzuki, HDFC Bank, and L&T contributed the most to the Sensex gains. Collectively these six stocks alone added about 132 points to the index while Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys, and HDFC capped the upsurge.

Wall Street stocks climbed on Friday following a surge in the tech sector and a rally in Amazon shares helped push the Nasdaq to its best day in nearly a year. The S&P technology index led the way higher, up 2.91%. The index notched its best day since March 1, 2016, and is up nearly 35% on the year versus the 15% gain in the S&P 500, Reuters reported. Google-parent Alphabet gained 4.26% as its revenue got a boost from advertising sales. Microsoft jumped 6.41% after the world’s largest software company reported further gains from its cloud computing services. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 33.33 points or 0.14% to 23,434.19, the S&P 500 gained 20.67 points or 0.81% to 2,581.07 and the Nasdaq Composite added 144.49 points or 2.2% to 6,701.26.