Shares rally to record amid gains in Larsen and Reliance

Benchmark Sensex and the NSE Nifty 50 Index closed at all-time highs, after capping their best quarter since 2014, boosted by gains in Reliance Industries and Larsen & Toubro.

The Sensex advanced one per cent at the close in Mumbai, while the Nifty rose 0.7 per cent. Reliance rallied 4.1 per cent to its highest closing price since January 2008 after converting more than 72 million of its free mobile-phone service subscribers to paying users. Markets will be shut Tuesday for a public holiday.

Larsen rose 5.5 per cent to close at its highest price since August 2015. The company will see additional benefits from “macro tailwinds of industrial capex announcements” in the financial year through March 2018, Jefferies India Pvt said in an investor note on Monday. The broker increased the 12-month price estimate to Rs 2,000 from Rs 1,750 and kept its buy rating on the stock.

“Strong inflows from mutual funds are providing support to the market and have the potential to take it to a further high,” Anil Ahuja, chief executive at Singapore-based IPEplus Advisors, said by phone. Investors will also focus on earnings for the financial year that runs through March 2018 for guidance, he said. Indian funds have been net buyers of local stocks for seven straight months through February, which included a record Rs 13,800 crore ($2.1 billion) purchase in November, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Eleven of the 13 sector gauges compiled by BSE rallied, led by the S&P BSE Capital Goods Index’s 3.5 per cent gain.