Nifty, Bank end March series at record closing high; HDFC Bank lifts Sensex 116 pts

Rally in banks helped the 50-share NSE Nifty end March series at record closing high on Thursday. Clearance to all four GST bills in the Lok Sabha also boosted market sentiment, raising hopes for timely implementation of GST with effect from July 1.

Overall it was a volatile session as traders rolled over their futures & options positions from March series to April series. The NSE Nifty gained 29.95 points at 9,173.75 while the BSE Sensex was up 115.99 points at 29,647.42, backed by HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries.

Experts maintained bullish stance on market, especially due to consistent progress towards likely implementation of GST from July 1 and after landslide victory of BJP in Uttar Pradesh.

While having an overweight call on India, Mickey Doshi of Credit Suisse says recent state elections tell that the government has got a clear majority, the mandate is getting stronger. So even if the market has had a good run, it stabilises but optimism still remains, he adds.

Macquarie Securities Group believes that the risk reward is in favour of investors and one could look at domestic stories in the current set-up with a measured approach.

Earnings could face some pressure in the fourth quarter, but in 18-24 months, it will see much stronger earnings growth, Macquarie feels.

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The broader markets also gained momentum, with the BSE Midcap rising 0.4 percent and Smallcap up nearly a percent. About two shares gained for every share falling on the exchange.

FIIs inflow is expected to be highest in a month as they have already bought more than Rs 29,000 crore worth of shares in March.

Nifty Bank ended at record closing high of 21,620.70, up 1.07 percent as Punjab National Bank, IndusInd Bank and SBI gained 1-3 percent. Investors awaited announcement on NPA resolution from the government.

HDFC Bank and Adani Ports were leading contributors to Sensex’ gains, up 2.51 percent and 5.77 percent on value buying, respectively.

Kotak Mahindra Bank gained 0.4 percent as the bank will raise up to approximately Rs 5,500 crore through issue of up to 6.2 crore equity shares.

Reliance Industries was up over a percent after the company completed sale of entire its 76 percent stake in Mauritius-incorporated Gulf Africa Petroleum Corporation to Total. (Disclosure: Reliance Industries owns Network 18 that publishes Moneycontrol.com)

Larsen & Toubro ended up 0.1 percent after construction and hydrocarbon divisions bagged orders worth Rs 5,725 crore.

Among others, Bharti Airtel, M&M, Wipro, Cipla and GAIL gained 1-1.7 percent whereas Infosys, HDFC, Axis Bank, ONGC, Tata Motors and Tata Steel were down 0.4-1.3 percent.
In broader space, Dilip Buildcon rallied 3.4 percent on bagging three NHAI orders worth Rs 3,269 crore in Maharashtra. PTC India Financial gained 2.6 percent after selling stake in Indian Energy Exchange for Rs 132.5 crore. Thermax was up 6.6 percent as the engineering company said it would acquire 100 percent share capital of Poland-based Barite Investments.