MUMBAI: The West Asia peace deal between US and Iran which could eventually end the war in the region, lifted sensex by 736 points on Monday. The index closed at 76,264 points. The day also witnessed foreign funds turning net buyers of equities after remaining net sellers for days altogether, crude prices plunging more than 5% and the rupee strengthening substantially to below 95-to-the-dollar mark.L&T and Reliance Industries contributed the most to the day’s gains in the sensex, exchange data showed.After the deal was announced early on Monday, markets were in an upbeat mood with sensex opening almost 1,200 points higher. It gained some more points in early trades and then as profit taking set in, it closed slightly off the intra-day high, but was still up 1%.
Roller coaster
The day’s gains made investors richer by almost 8.5 lakh crore with BSE’s market capitalisation now at Rs 470.5 lakh crore. These gains came on the back of a Rs 200-crore net buying by foreign portfolio investors, BSE data showed.Fund managers and brokers said that with the deal now done, investors would look at, among other things, the pace of normalisation of the energy infrastructure in the region, rains in India, fund flows to the country etc.According to Nilesh Shah, MD, Kotak Mahindra Mutual Fund, investors’ focus would now shift to the normalisation on the ground of the supply chain that was majorly affected by the war, and prices of crude oil coming back to double digits. In addition, the domestic investors would also watch out for the spread of the monsoon, fund flows as well as guidance from the companies.In the foreign exchange market, the peace deal boosted the rupee. It touched a high of 94.46 against the dollar and closed at 94.71, a gain of 40p over Friday’s closing.
