Mumbai, July 6: Stock markets extended the gaining streak to the fourth day on Monday, with the benchmark Sensex rising by 521 points to settle at a more-than-two-month high, driven by buying in blue-chip bank and oil shares and lower crude oil prices.
The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 521.16 points, or 0.67 per cent, to settle at 78,285.07, a closing level not seen since April 22. During the day, it surged 634.15 points, or 0.81 per cent, to 78,398.06.
The 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 159.50 points, or 0.66 per cent, to end at 24,430.35, the highest closing level since April 21.
In four consecutive trading days, the BSE benchmark has jumped 1,806.4 points, or 2.36 per cent, and the Nifty by 564.6 points, or 2.36 per cent.
Fresh foreign fund inflows aided the optimistic trend in the domestic equity market, analysts said. Foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 1,355.33 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.
Among the Sensex pack, HDFC Bank climbed the most by 3.59 per cent. Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharat Electronics, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, and Maruti were also among the winners.
Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, Bajaj Finserv, and Power Grid were among the laggards.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, declined 0.82 per cent to USD 71.53 per barrel.
Broader markets also advanced as the BSE MidCap Select index climbed 0.71 per cent and SmallCap Select index went up by 0.47 per cent.
Sectorally, Realty jumped the most by 1.82 per cent, followed by MidSmall Private Banks Quality Tilt (1.40 per cent), Private Banks index (1.50 per cent), Top 10 Banks (1.24 per cent), Capital Goods (1.19 per cent) and Auto (1.14 per cent).
IT, Utilities, PSU Bank, Focused IT and Services were the laggards.
A rebound for AI stocks is supporting Wall Street on Monday and helping to push indexes higher.
The S&P 500 rose 0.4 per cent. The strength for companies in the artificial-intelligence technology industry sent the Nasdaq composite up 0.8 per cent, as of 9:35 am. Eastern time, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 85 points, or 0.2 per cent.
AI stocks have been swinging sharply in recent weeks on worries that their prices shot too high in the euphoria around AI. Doubts are rising about whether all the dollars flowing into AI chips and data centres can possibly create enough productivity and profit gains to make back all the investments.
Broadcom rose 5.7 per cent and was one of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500, coming off losses of more than 2 per cent from both Wednesday and Thursday at the end of last week. Micron Technology climbed 2.8 per cent.
The global appetite for AI from investors will face an additional test later this week when SK Hynix, the South Korean maker of computer memory, plans to raise USD 28 billion by selling shares of stock that will trade in the United States on the Nasdaq. That would make it one of the biggest US offerings ever, behind SpaceX’s IPO from last month, which raised USD 75 billion.
SK Hynix’s stock in Seoul has already more than tripled so far this year because of the AI boom, but its day-to-day swings have included sharp losses in recent weeks. It fell 14.6 per cent on Thursday alone, for example.
SpaceX, which owns the xAI business, has seen its stock likewise swing following its ballyhooed initial public offering. It rose 2.4 per cent in the last day of trading before it’s scheduled to join the Nasdaq 100 index of the largest non-financial stocks on the Nasdaq. That inclusion will force funds like the QQQ exchange-traded fund, which mimic the index, to buy SpaceX themselves.
In the oil market, prices were drifting after OPEC+ announced Sunday that seven of its members plan to expand oil production by a combined total of 188,000 barrels per day in August. It was the fifth straight month that OPEC+ members have agreed to raise output.
The price of a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, edged down 0.1 per cent to USD 72.07. That’s close to where it was before the United States and Israel attacked Iran in late February and sent prices spiking. (Agencies)
