Today it was the turn of BSE Sensex to record historical milestone after NSE Nifty scaling the 21,000 peak on Friday. The BSE Sensex breached the 70,000-mark for the first time on Monday, hitting an all-time high of 70,057.83 as foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) continue with strong inflows.

However, the Sensex surrendered some gains to close at 69,928.53, up 102.93 points or 0.15 per cent. The NSE Nifty50 gained 27.70 points or 0.13 per cent to 20,997.10. FIIs bought equities worth ₹3,632.30 crore, per exchange’s provisional data.

According to market experts, strong domestic economic growth and return of FIIs will drive the market higher in the coming months. The sustained gains helped the market-cap of Indian stocks rule above ₹4-trillion mark.

Top gainer, losers

Within the Sensex constituents, UltraTech Cement (3.14 per cent), Power Grid Corporation of India (1.05 per cent), Nestle India (0.91 per cent) and HCL Tech (0.87 per cent) were the top gainers. Axis Bank (1.26 per cent), Mahindra and Mahindra (0.99 per cent), Hindustan Unilever (0.67 per cent) and Maruti (0.59 per cent) were the major laggards.

Also read: Broker’s Call: Max Healthcare (Buy)

Sunny Agrawal, Head Equity Fundamental Research, SBI Securities, said, “Going by the historical m-cap to GDP ratio of 80-120 per cent, India’s m-cap is likely to hit $7 trillion by or prior to 2030 (assuming 100 per cent m-cap/GDP ratio). The market cap can increase due to increase in net valuation of the already listed universe and new listings in the form of IPO.”

On BSE, except BSE Healthcare and BSE Oil and Gas, all the sectoral indices ended in green on Monday. BSE Commodities was the top gainer with 1.16 per cent followed by BSE Metal (1.10 per cent), BSE Services (0.95 per cent) and BSE Realty (0.92 per cent).

Broad market

The broad market, too, reported strong performance with BSE MidCap gaining 0.91 per cent, BSE SmallCap (0.71 per cent) and BSE 500 (0.36 per cent).

Of the 4,035 stocks traded on BSE, 2,372 closed in green, 1,499 declined and 164 remained unchanged. As many as 366 stocks hit 52-week high and 27 stocks hit 52-week low.

‘Range-bound’

According to Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, markets are likely to consolidate in a range for the next few days as global central banks are set to announce policy outcomes this week.

Also read: Broker’s Call: Aditya Vision (Buy)

US and India inflation along with India’s manufacturing data will keep investors cautious on Tuesday, he added.

The US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is scheduled to meet on December 12-13 to decide the future course of the country’s monetary policy.