(LiveMint)
BSE Sensex rose on Monday and the rupee strengthened as investors breathed a sigh of relief after the market’s favoured candidate, Emmanuel Macron, won the first round of the French presidential election. The outcome led to a mass unwinding of safe-haven trades in favour of riskier assets, although in India gains were tempered as investors awaited a slew of quarterly earnings reports, including that of Reliance Industries Ltd due later in the day.
“There’s a good chance in France for Macron to win, which is positive for global markets,” said Neeraj Dewan, director at Quantum Securities. Macron will now face far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a 7 May run-off, with opinion polls on Sunday predicting an easy win for him in the final clash.
The rupee strengthened per dollar from its close on Friday, but bonds fell, with the benchmark 10-year bond yield rising 2 basis points to 6.94%. Cement stocks were among the biggest gainers on the NSE index, following better-than-expected quarterly results by ACC Ltd on Friday. The Nifty realty index climbed as much as 3.9% to its highest since July 2014. ACC gained as much as 6.2% and was the top gainer on the Nifty. HDFC Bank Ltd rose as much as 2.8% to a record high after the country’s second-biggest lender by assets on Friday reported higher-than-expected profit for the March quarter.
