The day also marked the start of the “Vikram Samvat Year 2079”. Mainly followed by the Gujaratis who are the majority among the Dalal Street merchants, the Samvat year begins on Diwali day. Traditionally during the Muhurat session, individual traders and investors tend to buy stocks, albeit in small quantities, and refrain from selling.
Despite a strong sell-off in Hong Kong and Chinese markets and flat trading on European exchanges, the sensex started the session on Monday on a strong note and remained in a tight range before closing 0.9% in green. On the NSE, the broader Nifty closed at 154 points, again 0.9%, up to 17,731.
According to Dhiraj Relli, MD and CEO of HDFC Securities, the positive ending during the Muhurat session was in line with most of those sessions in the past. “Indices rose led by banking stocks, after a volatile year, helped by positive signals from European and US markets and despite the selloff in Hong Kong and China markets. Investors are hoping that the positive sentiment can be carried into the Samvat New Year despite some headwinds at the macroeconomic and global level. ”
On Friday, the major US indices gained around 2% each. This turned out to be one of the main drivers of sensex, market players said. And early Monday, the Tokyo and Seoul markets closed positively as Shanghai and Hong Kong closed steeply after the close of the Party Congress in China the previous evening. The Hang Seng closed down 6.4%, the worst percentage loss in a single session in a decade, according to reports.
The day’s winning session on Dalal Street added over Rs 2 lakh crore to investor wealth with BSE’s market cap now at over Rs 279 lakh crore. Of the 30 Senex stocks, 28 closed higher, according to BSE data. Among sensex stocks, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and HDFC together accounted for nearly half of the index’s gains. On the other hand, losses in HUL and Kotak Bank limited the gains of the sensex, according to data from BSE.
On the sector front, the BSE indices of capital goods, industrials, financial services, banks and telecommunications closed with gains of more than 1% each, while the consumer goods sector indicator closed in the red. becoming the only sector index to do so. On Diwali day, BSE also began trading in gold electronic receipts (EGRs), a new product that will offer a new avenue for investors, jewelers and institutions to invest in the yellow metal. Since 2015, BSE has partnered with the regulator and all market participants across India to launch various gold-based products, the exchange said in a press release.
