A new high

Stock markets live on hope

Given the flurry of bad news over the weekend, there was little reason for the stock markets to rally the way they did on Monday. The Sensex closed above the 40,000-point mark for the first time and the Nifty went past 12,000, also for the first time. The March quarter GDP data was weak, suggesting an overall slowdown; auto sales for May continued to be poor and corporate earnings for the fourth quarter of 2018-19 were disappointing. India Inc’s leaders are also almost unanimous in their view that consumption, the only engine fuelling the economy, is slowing. Yet, the BSE