The Sensex surged 255 points to close at a new peak of 31,312 and the Nifty reconquered the key 9,600 on hopes that the central bank initiative directing lenders to start bankruptcy proceedings against large loan defaulters would help reduce the levels of bad debt hampering credit growth in the country.

There was more of buying as investors saw NPA resolution gaining traction after the Reserve Bank asked lenders to initiate bankruptcy proceedings against large defaulters.

Risk-on improved after the GST Council had yesterday relaxed the return filing rules for businesses for the first two months of the rollout of the new indirect tax regime even as it stuck to the July 1 launch date.

Market participants also seemed comforted by SEBI’s plans to relax its norms for direct registration of foreign investors and fast-track the listing process for companies, including startups, as part of efforts to make the Indian stock market more attractive for investments

The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended higher by 255.17 points or 0.82 per cent at 31,311.57 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty closed up 69.5 points or 0.72 per cent at 9,657.55.

Among BSE sectoral indices, metal index was the star-performer and was up 1.89 per cent, followed by banking 0.96 per cent, capital goods 0.74 per cent and FMCG 0.72 per cent. On the other hand, healthcare index was down 0.48 per cent, realty 0.32 per cent, consumer durables 0.22 per cent and IT 0.09 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were Adani Ports (+3.05%), Axis Bank (+1.94%), Power Grid (+1.67%), L&T (+1.59%) and Reliance (+1.53%), while the major losers were Infosys (-1.17%), Sun Pharma (-0.77%), Dr Reddy's (-0.76%), Tata Motors (-0.7%) and Coal India (-0.59%).

Bankruptcy process

Lenders such as State Bank of India gained after the central bank asked banks to start banktruptcy process against 12 large loan defaulters, raising hopes that reduction of bad debt will start to quicken.

The Reserve Bank of India has urged lenders to initiate bankruptcy proceedings against a dozen companies, including Essar Steel, Bhushan Steel Ltd and Monnet Ispat and Energy Ltd, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The RBI said it had identified the 12 defaulters last week, but did not publicise their names.

“There is a general feeling that non-performing asset (NPA) levels will come down after the RBI order to resolve NPAs of the country,” said RK Gupta, managing director at Taurus Asset Management.

The Nifty PSU Bank Index gained as much as 0.79 per cent, with top lenders State Bank of India up as much as 0.7 per cent and Canara Bank Ltd rising as much as 1.8 per cent.

Loan defaulters that are facing bankruptcy proceedings however fell.

Lanco Infratech Ltd was down as much as 8.5 per cent to Rs 2.15, a record low, after it said it was one of the companies that had been identified by the RBI to start bankruptcy proceedings.

Shares of Monnet Ispat and Energy Ltd fell as much as 19.9 per cent.

The Nifty Pharma Index was down as much as 1.08 per cent as ongoing quality concerns raised by the US Food and Drug Administration pressured pharma stocks.

Cipla Ltd , the biggest drag on the pharma index, was down 2 per cent.

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