BSE Market Cap Hits Record High of Rs 400 Lakh Cr

New Delhi, Apr 8 (PTI) The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies reached an all-time closing high of Rs 400.86 lakh crore on Monday, following a record rally in equities, wherein the 30-share BSE Sensex scaled its lifetime peak.

The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies has gone past the coveted Rs 400 lakh crore mark for the first time.

The 30-share BSE benchmark jumped 494.28 points or 0.67 per cent to settle at 74,742.50. During the day, it climbed 621.08 points or 0.83 per cent to reach a new intra-day record high of 74,869.30.

Thanks to the rally in equities, the market capitalisation (mcap) of BSE-listed companies reached an all-time closing high of Rs 4,00,86,722.74 crore (USD 4.81 trillion).

The market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms had hit the Rs 300 lakh crore mark in July last year.

From the Sensex basket, Maruti, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC, JSW Steel, Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Industries, Axis Bank, and Power Grid were the major gainers.

Nestle, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Titan, HDFC Bank, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services were the laggards.

"Markets maintained optimism throughout the trading session as robust global cues boosted key benchmark indices to fresh record highs on broad-based buying support. Domestic fund flows have been strong, which is giving local equity markets a major fillip in spite of choppy foreign fund inflows.

"Despite expensive valuations, investors are willing to bet big on Indian stocks on expectations of a strong growth momentum going ahead, which would augur well for equity markets," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research) at Mehta Equities Ltd, said.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong settled in the positive territory while Shanghai ended lower.

European markets were trading in the positive zone. Wall Street ended with gains on Friday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 1,659.27 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.81 per cent to USD 90.45 a barrel.

"The buoyancy in sentiment continued, led by sectorial tailwinds and Q4 earnings growth expectations. The up move was largely broad-based, with outperformance by auto, realty, oil & gas, and consumer discretionary, while IT was tepid owing to insipid Q4 growth expectations due to a slowdown in spending," Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said.

In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge climbed 0.26 per cent while smallcap index dipped 0.06 per cent.

Auto index climbed 1.65 per cent, oil & gas jumped 1.51 per cent, energy (1.24 per cent), consumer discretionary (1.14 per cent), realty (1.21 per cent), metal (1.10 per cent) and utilities (0.90 per cent).

Services, teck and IT were the laggards.

A total of 266 stocks hit their 52-week high while 12 hit their 52-week low on the BSE.