Markets Make New High; Chidambaram Mocks Experts, Says It's UPA Rally

India's benchmark indices hit fresh all-time intraday high today in a tepid session.

At 02:20 p.m.; the 50-share index was at 6,588.65, up 5.15 points, or 0.08 per cent. It touched an all-time intraday high of 6,595.45 and a low of 6,544.85 in trade today.

The S&P BSE Sensex was at 22,061.36, up 5.88 points or 0.03 per cent. It touched an all-time high of 22,079.96 and a low of 21,916.87 in trade today.

Stock market analysts are all fervent about the fact that the current market rally is being driven on hopes of a stable government post coming elections, but Finance Minister P Chidambaram finds this amusing.

"I am amused to read in some sections of the media that it is the 'hope' of a stable government that is bringing in investments and driving up the capital market and the value of the rupee," the finance minister was quoted as saying by PTI.

"It's not 'hope', but the 'fact' of a stable government provided by the UPA and the numerous measures taken in the last 18 months that have provided stability and strength to the Indian economy," he said.

Chidambaram said this on a campaign rally in support of his son Karti in Sivaganga, Tamil Nadu.

"If there is any hope that is driving the market, I believe it is the hope that the new government will follow the 10-point agenda that I had spelt out in my Interim Budget speech on 17.2.2014".

"I can assure the people and the investors that a Congress-led government will faithfully implement the ten-point agenda".

Talkign about the recent market rally, William De Vijlder, CIO-Strategy, BNP Paribas Investment Partners told ET Now: "Ever since there was talk that Mr Modi would play a key role in the political landscape going forward in India, of course the market has reacted to that positively. So, I can only say that there has been quite a bit of anticipation already and that means that if he comes out of the elections as a strong man, then the first 100 days, the honeymoon days, will be very important.”

“What will be absolutely crucial in an environment where there has been a lot of anticipation already, is that the decisions which are announced and measures which are taken, they are sufficiently ambitious and also credible,” he added.

"Since last July, day upon day, polls have been suggesting a stable government at the Centre and added has added to the market momentum besides other factors ... we expect this rally to continue for some more time till the elections are due. So, anything in the range of 6,900 is what we expect," Ravi Muthukrishnan, ICICI Securities, told ET Now today.

Says Sudip Bandyopadhyay, President, Destimoney Securities, "there is an expectation of a stable government after a long-long time which people are expecting will deliver the goods, but there are still some uncertainties in the horizon."

LKP Securities said in a note today: "with the general expectations of a stable government, the rally has legs of improvement."

The S&P BSE Midcap Index was up 0.57 per cent and the S&P BSE Smallcap Index was 0.14 per cent higher.

Among the sectoral indices, the S&P BSE Capital goods Index was up 1.35 per cent, the S&P BSE Power Index advanced 1.79 per cent and the S&P BSE Bankex Index was 0.50 per cent higher.

The S&P BSE Oil & gas Index fell 1.78 per cent, the S&P BSE IT Index was 0.49 per cent lower and the S&P BSE Healthcare Index slipped 0.02 per cent.

Shares of Reliance Industries were and ONGC under pressure after the Election Commission asked the Oil Ministry to defer the increase in gas prices that was to take effect from April 1, saying that the decision should be left to the government that's formed after the general election, with the Aam Aadmi Party's Arvind Kejriwal taking credit for the move.

The decision will put consumers and producers such as Reliance Industries and ONGC in a quandary because the hike has been stalled after the oil ministry's notification that the new rates would apply from the start of next month.

BHEL (up 3.99 per cent), Hero MotoCorp (up 2.35 per cent), HDFC (up 1.32 per cent), Tata Steel (up 1.31 per cent) and Tata Motors (up 1.31 per cent) were among the major Sensex gainers.

Reliance Industries (2.87 per cent), ONGC (1.76 per cent), Wipro (1.66 per cent), Sesa Sterlite (1.12 per cent) and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (0.77 per cent) were among the index losers.

The market breadth was negative on the BSE with 1148 gainers against 1605 losers.

Foreign institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 1465.62 crore while domestic institutional investors were net sellers worth Rs 770.39 croreon Monday as per the provisional data from the National Stock Exchange.