Sensex sees off 34,000 level mark

Mumbai: Continuing with their winning momentum, the equity markets soared to a record high on Tuesday with the Sensex scaling above the 34,000 level mark for the first time.

After trading flat for the most part of the day, the markets witnessed strong upward momentum towards the fag end of the trading session amidst fresh buying in select index heavy weights and short covering ahead of the expiry of the December derivative contracts.

The Sensex closed the day at 34,010.61, up 70.31 points or 0.21 per cent after hitting an intra-day high of 34,061.88.

Similarly, the Nifty surpassed its key psychological barrier of 10,500 level mark to close at 10,531.50, up 38.50 points or 0.37 per cent.

“Despite subdued activity from overseas investors, our markets soared to a record high on the back of strong investments made by domestic institutional investors and high net worth investors. The broader sentiment remains positive amidst an improvement in India’s macro’s. On Tuesday, the debt resolution plan announced by R-Com also triggered a rally in other telecom stocks as well as some of the lenders that has an exposure to company,” said Santosh Meena, senior research analyst at Swastika Investments.

The sudden rally in the market during the last hour of trading according to him surprised traders who had created bearish bets in anticipation of a correction.

“They were forced top cover their bearish position, which provided further momentum to the market,” he said.  

According to the provisional data released by the stock exchanges, foreign portfolio investors (FPI) sold equities worth Rs 44 crore while domestic institutions bought stocks worth Rs 544.50 crore.

“We witnessed a sharp move in the upward direction after convincingly surpassing the higher end of Nifty’s previous range of 10,372- 10,490. Going ahead, we may see extension of the rally towards 10,575– 10,600, but we believe that the move will not be as swift as it should be otherwise,” said Sameet Chavan, derivative analyst at Angel Broking.

The broader markets also participated in the rally with 1,662 stocks traded on BSE closing the day higher as compared to 1,085 stocks that declined.