History On Dalal Street

History on Dalal Street; markets hit final upper circuit Markets reacted buoyantly to ruling UPA coalition’s decisive electoral win in the 15th Lok Sabha elections Mary Ercilia Gayen

New Delhi: Creating history on Dalal Street, markets hit two upper circuit limits on Monday in a buoyant reaction to ruling UPA coalition’s decisive electoral win in the 15th Lok Sabha elections. For the first time in Indian market’s history, trading has been halted for the day due to markets hitting upper circuit limit. In their second opening of the day, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex surged 2,099 points reaching 14,000 level and NSE hit its final upper circuit of 20%. Trading was halted until 11:55am after Sensex opened 10% up by 1,300 points and NSE 15% up by 500 pts within 60 seconds of trade reaching its upper circuit. The 30-share BSE index rose 17.34% to close at 14,284.21 and the 50-share NSE Nifty surged by 651.50 points to end at 4,323.15. Within just over a minute of trading today, the turnover is at Rs3,103 crore with only 272 stocks traded on NSE and 842 stocks on BSE.

As predicted, indexes resurged remarkably after election results ignited hopes for a stable government that would push reforms to lift the slowing economy. Numerous financial

experts and Bank of America had already forecasted that Sensex would surge to 14,000 levels, more than 15% increase from the 15 May close. Congress party-led UPA government is now expected to provide economic reforms, reduce deficit and boost government funds for development through PSU disinvestments. Infrastructure was the biggest gainer of today’s unprecedented rally, realty sector surged by 25.37%. Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd was the on top of the line of BSE gainers, surging by 32.72% to Rs2,266. Other related stocks like Larsen & Toubro gained by 29.53% to Rs 1,280, Unitech Ltd up by 29.41% to Rs66, DLF Ltd is up by 25.82% to Rs324.80 and Punj Lloyd up by 23.20% to Rs162.50. Other prominent gainers on the BSE pack was ICIC Bank up by 25.30% to Rs719.80, Housing Development and Finance Corp by 23.46% to Rs2,390, Reliance by 22.87% to Rs2,393.90, Reliance Communication Ltd by 22.74% to Rs285 and Bharti Airtel by 22.53% to Rs 980. All sectors ended in green today with no losers in either of the indices. Meanwhile, Asian markets traded lower due to doubts about extent of economic recovery as US consumer price index was reported flat over the weekend. Also there is prevalent cautiousness about slumping corporate results. Japan’s Nikkei ends down by 2.44% but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is 1% up.