Sensex up 320 pts on Economic Survey growth projections

Mumbai: The benchmark Sensex maintained its early upward trend and was trading over 320 points higher after the Economic Survey said India is likely to clock 7-7.5 percent growth in 2018-19, up from 6.75 percent in the current fiscal.

The 30-share barometer, after scaling a new peak of 36,410.60 points in late morning trade on optimistic buying, succumbed to profit-booking at record levels and gave up a part of the gains. It was trading at 36,370.92 at 1300 hours, up 320.48 points, or 0.89 percent, after the Economic Survey was tabled in Parliament.

The lift came from gains mostly in Maruti Suzuki, TCS, HDFC Ltd, Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hindustan Unilever, M&M, Coal India, Infosys, Hero MotoCorp, Sun Pharma, L&T, HDFC Bank and IndusInd Bank.

The NSE Nifty climbed 77 points, or 0.70 percent, to quote at 11,146.65. In early trade, it touched an all-time high of 11,163.75, surpassing its previous (intra-day) record high of 11,110.10 hit on January 24. The Economic Survey for 2017-18 said the GDP will grow on the back of major reforms which would be strengthened further in the next financial year.

The survey pointed out that India can be rated as among the best performing economies in the world as the average growth during last three years is around 4 percentage points higher than global growth and nearly 3 percentage points higher than that of emerging markets and developing economies.