PSU stocks markets to fresh high after BJP wins Assembly polls

NEW DELHI: PSU stocks powered a monster rally of over 900 points on Monday to a fresh high after the BJP emerged victorious in the state Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

BSE Sensex is up 928 points at 68,409 points to a new high.

PSU stocks are the biggest gainers with HPCL up 8 per cent, NLC up 6 per cent, BEL up 5 per cent, GAIL up 5 per cent, New India Assurance up 5 per cent, IOC up 5 per cent, RVNL up 4 per cent, IRCON up 4 per cent, Central Bank of India up 4 per cent, REC up 4 per cent, Engineers India up 4 per cent, OIL up 4 per cent, BPCL up 4 per cent, Union Bank up 4 per cent, ONGC up 4 per cent, NBCC up 4 per cent, LIC up 4 per cent.

Adani Group stocks also gained with Adani Enterprises up 6 per cent, Adani Ports up 5 per cent. Adani Green is up 7 per cent.

Among the Sensex stocks, L&T is up 4 per cent and SBI up 3 per cent.

V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said the state elections results have turned out to be a big event which can trigger renewed optimism and further rally in the market.

Market likes political stability and a reform-oriented, market-friendly government. From the market perspective, the results were better-than-expected. The market has already partly discounted a BJP victory with a 500 point rally during the last four sessions. But the mood is so exuberant that the rally will continue. An across the board rally in stocks is in the offing.

A restraining factor will be the valuations which are high and will get stretched further with the rally gaining momentum. In the near-term the market will ignore fundamentals and move up but soon high valuations will trigger some selling, he said.

The BJP’s resounding victory in three of the four major state elections will further strengthen the market’s bullish sentiment, Kotak Institutional Equities said in a report.

The reduced election ‘risk’ and (2) growing expectations of an imminent rate cut cycle in the US may sustain the Indian market’s rich valuations.

Most consumption, investment and outsourcing-linked stocks are trading at ‘rich’ valuations, while financials continue to trade at attractive/reasonable valuations.

Meanwhile, mega-caps have underperformed other large-caps, mid-caps and small-caps. It is possible that mega-caps may now see more interest from the market (specifically FPIs) given (1) their reasonable valuations and (2) lower worries about a sub-optimal outcome (no decisive mandate) in the general elections, the report said.