MUMBAI/BENGALURU:
Indian markets rallied on Monday after exit polls showed Prime Minister Narendra Modi was set to win a second term after a general election with an even bigger mandate than in 2014.
The S&P BSE Sensex zoomed over 900 points at open to cross the 38,700 levels. The broader Nifty50 index, on the other hand, saw its best opening gain after the 2014 Lok Sabha result and hit 11,694 levels – up nearly 2.5 per cent, or 284 points.
Exits polls, following the mammoth seven-phase election that ended on Sunday, showed Modi’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was projected to win between 339 and 365 seats in the 545-member lower house of parliament when votes are counted on Thursday.
Markets had been expecting the NDA to win a second term but the margin of victory as suggested by the polls is a clear surprise and expected to keep sentiment buoyant in the near term.
The NSE Nifty was up 2.46% at 11,688.05 points as of 0558 GMT, while the BSE Sensex was 2.57% higher at 38,906.76 points.
India’s NSE stock futures listed on the Singapore exchange, an indicator for the broader NSE index, was up 2.34% as of 0601, after rising as much as 2.76%.
Motilal Oswal, CMD, Motilal Oswal Financial Services:
The exit poll results are better than the expectations. Markets will move up by 2 per cent – 3 per cent in next few days. I am quite optimistic at these levels. Investors should increase equity allocations
Ajay Bodke, CEO (PMS) Prabhudas Lilladher:
As per the poll of polls, NDA, led by BJP, is likely to easily cross the half-way mark. This is a big relief, as it favours continuity and familiarity in terms of roll-out of policies. Institutional investors will look forward to the fillip to economic growth provided by structural reforms strongly pushed by Narendra Modi like GST, IBC, RERA, DBT etc.
With benign inflation, well-anchored inflationary expectations and a relatively stable exchange rate, focus will be on how Modi is able to kick-start slowing engine of consumption, revive private investments, provide fillip to anemic exports, alleviate farm distress, create adequate employment opportunities, rescue the precariously perched NBFC & real-estate sectors, generate adequate resources through better administration of taxes & divestment to fund the increasingly populist