Sensex closes at a new high of 24,121; Nifty at 7,203 as BJP-led NDA all set to form the next government

Mumbai: The Sensex crossed 25,000 intra-day and ended above 24,000. The Sensex was up 216.14 points or 0.90 percent at 24121.74. The Nifty ended at record closing high of 7200 after hitting intra-day high of 7563.5. The Nifty was up 79.85 points or 1.12 percent at 7203. NSE cash volume was at Rs 35,631 crore, highest since May 2009.

Happy at the clear mandate given by voters to the BJP-led NDA, India Inc exuded confidence that Narendra Modi will initiate bold and decisive policy reforms to promote economic growth. "A clear mandate is positive for India. Ficci hopes that this mandate will help the leadership restore much needed investor confidence, attract higher investments and generate employment, especially in the manufacturing sector," Ficci President Sidharth Birla said.

Modi appears all set to be the next Prime Minister with BJP likely to get a majority on its own, as per the results trend since this morning. BJP-led NDA is expected to get over 300 seats in the 16th Lok Sabha elections. Assocham President Rana Kapoor said, "A majority mandate gives hope of a stable government, paving the way for bold and decisive policy reforms. This can herald a sustainable 10 percent growth of the economy in the next 18-24 months".

The Reserve Bank of India said it has a contingency plan in place to infuse liquidity and deal with any volatility in the stock market on Friday in view of the election results.

"We assured the board that we are in discussions with the Finance Ministry and SEBI and we have placed prudential contingency plans to infuse liquidity, if needed. We hope that everything will go normally tomorrow when the election results are announced," RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said. Earlier this week, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had asked the regulators to maintain a strict vigil on volatility in the stock markets on the day of results.

While market authorities have been monitoring stock movements closely the last few days when markets surged to record highs on the back of exit polls and other predictions, they are now focusing mainly on tackling possible shocks on Friday and on Monday.

The Sensex is up 935.09 points or 3.91 percent at 24840.69, and the Nifty up 277.45 points or 3.90 percent at 7400.60. About 894 shares have advanced, 310 shares declined, and 38 shares are unchanged.

Ajay Srivastava, CEO, Dimensions Consulting says, unless there is a major surprise of 300 plus seats then you are talking of 4-5 percent up very clearly in the market. "Lots of people have booked profits including ourselves in the last couple of days which may like to redeploy their money into select stock if it is 300 plus. If it is going to be 270 or thereabouts, I think we are looking at a flattish kind of closing. If it is much below 270, we all go to the temple," he said.

SBI, HDFC Bank, BHEL, Axis Bank and L&T stocks are major gainers in the Sensex, up 4-9 percent each. Only Dr Reddy's Labs is a laggard in the Sensex, losing 1 percent.