Nifty hits 9,600 for the first time ever, Sensex trades above 31,000

Tata Steel gained as much as 5.5% to Rs 513.80, it's highest since September 2014

Markets extended their bullish momentum prevailed in the afternoon deals with Sensex hitting 31,000-mark, and the Nifty scaling 9600-mark following a rally in frontline indices on higher derivative rollover on the first day of June series.
 
The S&P BSE Sensex rallied as much as 324 points to hit its new high of 31,074 surpassing its previous peak of 30,793 reached yesterday, while the broader Nifty50 gained 95 points to touch its fresh high of 9,604, overriding the previous milestone of 9,432, hit on May 17.
 
At 3:402 pm, the 30-share Sensex was trading at 31,069, up 320 points, while the Nifty50 was ruling at 9,603, up 94 points.
 
Broader market outperformed benchmark indices with the S&P BSE Midcap and the S&P BSE Smallcap indices gaining near 1.5% each.

"The broader markets have recovered after days of sell-off and the positve sentiment has rubbed off on the friontline indices as well. Dovish stance of the US Federal Reserve in its last meeting as regards interest rates also aided sentiment," said Ankur Varman, AVP - Institutional Equity sales at SBI Capital Markets. He expects Nifty50 to hit 9,800 by June-end.

Adding to that, AK Prabhakar, Head of Research at IDBI Capital said, "Domestic and global markets were boosted by Fed statement which said that rate hike won't be immediate. Yesterday, markets moved on short-covering and today is the first day of the settlement hence the rally continues. Markets may also come down in the next one month and remain range-bound in absence of any strong trigger." 

Prabhakar expects S&P BSE Sensex to reach 34,000-35,000 by the year-end and 37,000 by March 2018.

 
The market breadth was healthy as 1,664 shares advanced against a decline of 715 shares, while 135 shares were unchanged.
 
Reliance Industries gained as much as 3.22%, while Tata Steel gained as much as 5.9% to Rs 514, it’s highest since September 2014.
 
FMCG firm ITC, which is slated to report March quarter results later in the day, gained as much as 1.55%.
 
Maruti Suzuki, up 0.6% which reported its results for the quarter ended March last month has been on an uptrend since then. The stock has rallied over 30% so far in the year 2017.
 
HDFC gained 1%, being the only Indian company to be named among the top 10 consumer financial services companies in the world, with American Express claiming the first position.
 
Among losers, Videocon Industries which was down 10% continued to nosedive for the third consecutive session as investors continued to dump the stock. The scrip hit its lower circuit again in the opening minutes. Bearishness in the stock has continued following banks’ declaring the company’s debt as a non-performing asset. Dena Bank and Central Bank of India declared the company as an NPA on their books.
 
Indian Oil Corp slipped for the first time in three sessions, falling as much as 5.2%, while Bharat Petroleum lost as much as 3.3%.
 
Cipla fell 3%, to its eleven-month low after posting a quarterly loss against analysts' expectations.
 
Globally, Asian stocks fell, prompting a move away from riskier assets after an OPEC agreement to extend cuts in crude production for a further nine months disappointed investors who had bet on bigger output cuts.
 
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan, which closed at a two-year high on Thursday, fell 0.2% shrinking its weekly gain to 1.45% while Japan's Nikkei lost 0.6%, narrowing its weekly increase to 0.5%.
 
China's CSI 300 slid 0.2% heading for a 2.2% increase for the week. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was flat, on track for a weekly gain of 1.8%.