Sensex closes at new lifetime high of 31109, Nifty above 9,600 pts

The benchmark BSE Sensex hit record high on Monday rising 81.07 points to close at 31,109.28. The NSE Nifty-50 Index gained  9.80 points  at 9,604.90. The Sensex settled above the psychological 31000 mark after alternately moving above and below that level until early afternoon trade. On the BSE,  there were 1,799 declines against  861 advances and a total of 191 shares were unchanged.
Market sentiment was risen by hopes of timely onset of southwest rainfalls  after IMD in on 29 May 2017 said that conditions are becoming favorable for further advance of southwest monsoon over Kerala and parts of north-eastern states around 30th to 31st May 2017.
Consumer goods stocks like Hindustan Unilever, Dabur India and ITC rallied up to 3 percent pushing the Nifty FMCG index higher by over 1 percent. Tech Mahindra hit more than 3 year low after posting a 33 percent fall in consolidated profit for the March-quarter. The stock ended at Rs 380, down 11 percent
Stocks of Healthcare were the biggest drag on the index, after Sun Pharma fell nearly 13.2% to around 4-year low after the company on Friday reported a 14 percent fall in March-quarter profit.  Stocks of Aurobindo Pharma lost 5.5% while Lupin Ltd was down as much as 2.9%. Meanwhile, mobile carrier Reliance Communications slumped 23.5 percent to a record low of Rs 19.70 after posting its second straight quarterly loss over the weekend on account of a price war in the sector.

Sensex, Nifty hit record high levels for first time ever

The key benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty surged on broad-based buying support. On closing, the BSE Sensex, up 278.18 points or 0.90 percent to 31,028.21, while the Nifty-50 rose 85.35 points or 0.90 percent to 9,595.10. The both indices hit their respective record high levels in late trade. The broader, BSE Mid-Cap rose 2.06 percent and the Small-Cap index rose 1.60 percent, both these indices outperformed the BSE Sensex.

Stocks of private sector banks, metals and auto stocks were the Nifty gainers, while pharma stocks continued to bleed on the back of sluggish outlook. HPCL and ITC gained on the back of positive earnings, while large caps like Reliance Industries contributed majorly to the market’s gain.

ITC rose 2.14% to Rs 306.10 after company’s net profit jumped 12.13% to Rs 2,669.47 cr. Reliance Industries surged 2.69% to Rs 1,338, hitting a high of and low of Rs 1,344 and Rs 1,301, respectively.

Sun Pharm lost 4.44% to Rs 565.55, while Metal shares rose. Jindal Steel & Power went up 5.57%, Tata Steel rose 5.57% Vedanta jumped 4.32%, Steel Authority of India went up 3.68% among others.

Asian stocks ended on a mixed note and most European stocks were trading lower as a slouch in crude prices spoiled global risk appetite.

Modi Govt Approves Policy To 'Buy Indian' To Boost 'Make-In-India’

With a view to encourage Make-In-India-programme and giving preference to locally made goods and services, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has cleared the govt’s own version of the U.S’s Buy American policy via a national government procurement policy.

The new policy captioned “Govt procurement preference to Make-In-India order, 2017”, cleared by the Union cabinet on 24 May 2017, is expected to give a considerable impetus to local manufacturing and services sectors, whereby creating employments. It will also encourage the capital & technology flow into domestic manufacturing and services. It also provides push towards manufacture of parts, components and sub-components of these items, in line with the ‘Make in India’ vision.

The national procurement policy entails purchases of at least Rs. 2.00 trillion a year and also covers government companies, autonomous bodies and entities under the control of government. The government has defined local Goods & Service as those where at least 50 percent of the value addition has been done in India.

Small purchases of less than Rs. 5,00,000 are exempted from the policy; procurement of goods & services worth Rs. 50.00 lakh or less, where the nodal ministry decides that there is adequate local capacity and local competition, can be made only from local suppliers.

For procurement of orders worth more than Rs. 50.00 lakh, or where there is inadequate local capacity or competition, local suppliers will get a 20 percent margin of purchase preference. It implies that the local supplier will be given a chance to match the lowest bid, if its own bid is not more than 20 percent higher.

A standing committee in the Deptt of Industrial Policy & Promotion will manage the implementation of this order and its impending issues, and make recommendation to nodal ministries and procuring companies.