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The hope of a stable pro-business and reform oriented government being elected to power, kept markets in euphoric mood as benchmark indices continue to breach new highs on Monday.
India's five-week long elections are set to conclude on Monday, with exit polls from media organisations to be released starting after 6:30 p.m. Actual results will be out on Friday.
Both Sensex and Nifty which started rallying on Friday after a brief period of lull touched their respective highs of 23,453 and 6,988 respectively, in the day's trade.
At 11.40am, the 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex was trading at 23,374 levels, up 380 points or 1.65% while the Nifty index of National Stock Exchange (NSE), which tracks top 50 scrips listed on it, was trading 108 points or 1.6% higher at 6,967 levels.
Top index movers at this hour include: HDFC Bank, Reliance, ITC, HDFC and SBI which surged 3-5%; TCS, Sun Pharma, Wipro, Cipla and Hindalco were the laggards.
Market sentiment was also boosted by the fact that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1268.78 crore on Friday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
The foreign exchange markets were upbeat too with rupee rallying to its strongest level against the dollar since July 2013 on positive poll outcome hopes. The partially convertible rupee touched as much 59.51 per dollar on Monday, the strongest level since July 29, 2013, before edging lower to 59.71.
Banks are top gainers at this hour followed by capital goods, realty, power, oil & gas, metal stocks. Typically defensive themes such as Healthcare, information technology and consumer durables technology, lagged.
Among other shares that are in headline, Corporation Bank dipped 5% to Rs 285 in an otherwise strong market, after reporting a sharp 88% year-on-year (yoy) decline in net profit at Rs 41.5 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2014 (Q4FY14), due to higher provisioning for bad and doubtful debts. The state-owned bank had posted a profit of Rs 356 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.
Shares of IRB Infrastructure Developers have surged 7% to Rs 141, extending its 15% rally in past five trading sessions, after the company said it has bagged an Rs 2,300 crore road project in Haryana from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
Torrent Pharmaceuticals has surged 5% to Rs 655 after reporting 119% year-on-year (yoy) jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 244 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2014 (Q4FY14) on back of strong international revenues. The company had profit of Rs 111 crore in the corresponding quarter previous year
