Nifty trades above 9,220-mark, Sensex surges 200 ponts

Benchmark indices extended morning gains with Sensex up 200 points and Nifty50 trading near its all-time high mark after the manufacturing sector expanded at the fastest pace in five months in March.

The Nikkei Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 52.5 in March, from 50.7 in February. This is the third month in a row that it has been above the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley pegging India's GDP growth at 7.7% in 2018 also affected the sentiment.
 
In the early-morning trade, Nifty gained as much as 47 points to 9220, surpassing its previous record high of 9,118 hit on March 17.

 

At 2:04 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 29,863, up 242 points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 9,224, up 50 points.
 
In the broader market, the S&P BSE Midcap and the S&P BSE Smallcap indices added 0.6% and 1.21% respectively to touch their fresh lifetime highs. About three shares gained for every share falling on the BSE.
 
Meanwhile, Asian shares were trading modestly higher after a bumper quarter as investors look to the shape of US trade and economic policies and how they could affect global growth. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2%, while Japan's Nikkei gained 0.8% after hitting a seven-week low on Friday.

 
Shares of breweries & distilleries companies such as United Spirits, Radico Khaitan, Associated Alcohols & Breweries and Globus Spirits fell after the Supreme Court order banning sale of liquor along the national and state highways. Among individual stocks, United Spirits was down 6%. The stock slipped 8% to Rs 2,002 in intra-day trade so far.
 
Reliance Industries (RIL) gained nearly 5% to Rs 1,380, its fresh 9-year high on the BSE in intra-day trade, after Reliance Jio on Friday said it had notched an unprecedented 72 million paid subscribers, and extended by a fortnight its deadline for migrating other subscribers to its paid offer.

 
SpiceJet and Jet Airways over 1.5% each after price of jet fuel or Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) was cut by 5.1% to Rs 51,428 per kl with effect from April 1.
 
Among losers, Unitech tanked 20% at intra-day to Rs 4.46 after the company's promoters Ajay Chandra and Sanjay Chandra were sent to police custody late on Friday by a Delhi court in an alleged fraud case related to a Gurugram-based real estate project. They will be produced in a Delhi court today. The stock was currently trading 9% lower.