Retail investors make hay as stocks soar on Modi wave

Amid frenzy in Indian stock markets that rode the Narendra Modi wave, scores of retail investors made a killing Friday as scrips after scrips rose to record highs.

As the sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) vaulted to an all time intra-day high of 25,375.63 points, small investors saw a major opportunity to liquidate their stocks even as the appetite of institutional investors, including foreign funds, only kept growing.

"I have completely emptied my portfolio," said Sudha Nair, an elderly homemaker in New Delhi. "The value of the scrips I held, actually shot up more than 20 percent in a matter of just a week or so," Nair told IANS.

In a similar vein, Greater Noida-based businessman Ravindra Dhar said: "Until yesterday my portfolio was in the red. Today I sold it and made around Rs.30,000 profit." Dhar held Federal Bank, Jan Irrigation in his portfolio.

Over 200 scrips, including the heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ONGC, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Indian Oil Corporation and ICICI Bank, hit 52-week high on strong buying support from funds.

Many of the stocks surged more than 10 percent in the intra-day.

An IT professional from Patna, Saket Suman said he sold almost half of the stocks from his portfolio that included Reliance Industries and Adani Power.

"I made good profit. It was a great opportunity for the small investors like us," Suman said.

The benchmark Sensex rallied by 1400 points to soar past 25,000 points mark for the first time in the intra-day as early vote counts showed Narendra Modi is set to become next prime minister.

However, the Sensex trim the gains and was trading 206.27 points or 0.86 points higher at at 24,111.87 points,

BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is set for an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha, while the ruling Congress is headed for its worst ever performance, early vote counts showed.