Indian share markets surged on Monday, with the BSE Sensex closing at over 40,000 points and the Nifty 50 over 12,000 – both for the first time ever. The Sensex had touched the 40,000 mark a few times after the Lok Sabha election results, but had not maintained the level by the closing time on any day, Mint reported.
The gains came due to the hope that weak economic growth data would prompt the Reserve Bank of India to cut interest rates at its monetary policy meeting later this week, Reuters reported. Data released on May 31 showed that India’s economic output had grown just 5.8% in January-March – the slowest growth in over four years.
The Sensex gained 553.42 points to reach 40,267.62, while the National Stock Exchange Nifty 50 rose 165.75 points to close the day at 12,088.55. Both indices gained 1.4%. The Sensex hit a new intraday high of 40,308 points on Monday.
Hero MotoCorp was the top gainer on both indices, gaining nearly 6%. IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Auto and Asian Paints were among the top gainers on Sensex as well as Nifty 50. Only three stocks declined on the Sensex – ICICI Bank, NTPC and ITC. The top losers on the Nifty 50 were GAIL, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank, UltraTech Cement and NTPC.
At 3.50 pm, the rupee had gained 40 paise to 69.29 against the United States dollar.
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