... And Modi lifts Sensex to record 23,551, 189 firms to 52-week high

 In line with an extremely strong momentum in the stock market, as many as 189 stocks hit their 52-week highs on Monday on the BSE. Axis Bank, Coal India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, JSW Steel, L&T, Maruti Suzuki, RIL and Tata Motors were among the stocks that hit their one-year highs.

Stocks markets continued their record-breaking show as the BSE’s benchmark index, Sensex, ended at a new closing high of 23,55, and the NSE Nifty at 7,014.25, in anticipation that exit polls later in the day would show formation of a stable government at the Centre.

Intra-day, the Sensex rallied to an all-time high of 23,572.88, surpassing previous high of 23,048.49. The Nifty touched 7,020.75, breaking the earlier high of 6,871.35. Among the 30-Sensex constituents, 25 ended the day in green with Coal India surging 7.04 per cent, becoming the top gainer among the frontline stocks.

The other prominent gainers on the Sensex were HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp Ltd and Maruti. From the BSE’s 13 sectoral indices, 12 ended the day with gains led by bankex index.

‘Markets extended its rally in anticipation of NDA led alliance forming government. Going forward expect market to remain volatile with exit polls announcement and final result to be announced by Friday,’ said Rikesh Parikh, VP, Motilal Oswal Securities Ltd.

New Delhi: Shortly after the nine-phase voting for the 16th Lok  Sabha elections ended on Monday, the Centre allowed the oil marketing companies to hike diesel prices by Rs 1.09 a litre, excluding state levies. The monthly increases in diesel rates had been put on hold since March before voting began. The hikes came into  effect from Monday-Tuesday midnight, the oil companies announced.