(Bloomberg) -- India's 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 Ltd. and Larsen & Toubro Ltd.
The Sensex advanced 1 percent at the close in Mumbai, while the Nifty rose 0.7 percent. Reliance rallied 4.1 percent 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 percent 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 2,000 rupees from 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 138 billion rupees ($2.1 billion) purchase in November, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Eleven of the 13 sector gauges compiled by BSE Ltd. rallied, led by the S&P BSE Capital Goods Index's 3.5 percent gain.
Summary
- Dr. Reddy's (DRRD) +4.3% as ET Now reported earlier Monday that U.S. FDA has no major observations yet for company's Srikakulam plant; inspection may end Tuesday
- Unitech (UT) -8.9% as PTI reported on April 1 that its managing directors were arrested; steepest on S&P BSE 500 Index
- Indoco Remedies (INDR) -8.2% to lowest since Aug. 2014; Goa plant gets FDA warnings
- United Spirits (UNSP) -5.9%; click here for street wrap: Sales Ban to Delay United Spirits Profitability
- Wockhardt (WPL) +6.5%; highest close since Nov. 11; gets U.S. FDA approval for late stage trial of antibiotic
To contact the reporter on this story: Ameya Karve in Mumbai at akarve@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Divya Balji at dbalji1@bloomberg.net, Teo Chian Wei, Namitha Jagadeesh
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