Stock market benchmarks hit fresh peaks; Sensex breaches 69K

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices continued their winning streak for the sixth straight session on Tuesday amid massive buying by foreign institutional investors and easing crude oil prices.

Analysts said robust sentiment built up over favourable macroeconomic data in the previous week got a further boost after the results of assembly polls of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh raised hope of BJP's retaining power at the Centre in 2024.

Also, investors are expecting the RBI to maintain the status quo on the interest rate in its monetary policy decision to be announced later this week, they said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 169.94 points, or 0.25 per cent, to a new peak of 69,035.06 in early trade. The broader index Nifty also climbed 52.60 points, or 0.25 per cent to hit its all-time high of 20,739.40.

Among the Sensex firms, Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports sustained their gaining momentum and traded higher by 4.40 per cent and 4.37 per cent, respectively. BPCL, Axis Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra and SBI were the other major gainers.

On the other hand, HCL Tech, Infosys and Bajaj Auto traded in the negative zone with a loss of up to 1.54 per cent.

As many as 20 stocks of the 30-share benchmark were trading in the positive territory. Among Nifty stocks, 29 shares registered gains.

Foreign institutional investors purchased shares worth Rs 2,073.21 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.

The massive institutional buying is a reflection of institutional confidence in the Indian market, said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

"It is important to understand that FPIs have reversed their selling strategy and have been consistent buyers during the last 7 days. There is accumulation happening in the frontline banking stocks. This, along with short covering and reasonable valuations, will keep this segment strong.

"The market has the potential to go up by another 5 per cent in the next many weeks. Beyond that valuations will get stretched inviting correction in the market," he added.

In Asian markets, Hang Seng and Nikkei 225 were trading lower by 1.77 per cent and 1.35 per cent and, respectively, while Shanghai Composite was not trading.

European markets finished mixed on Monday with Germany's DAX closing 1.17 higher, while France's CAC 40 climbing 0.30 per cent. London's FTSE 100 declined 0.06 per cent.

The US markets ended with a mixed note with S&P 500 registering a loss of 0.54 per cent on Monday.

Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude slipped 0.01 per cent to USD 78.02 a barrel.

On Monday, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 1,383.93 points, or 2.05 per cent, to close at a lifetime high of 68,865.12. The index touched an intra-day record peak of 68,918.22. The barometer logged its biggest single-day jump since May 20, 2022.

The combined market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies hit an all-time high of Rs 343.48 lakh crore on Monday.