Mumbai: After Prime Minister Narendra Modi predicted a historic win for the BJP in the upcoming election and forecasted record highs for the stock markets on June 4, the benchmark Nifty index crossed the 22,800 mark for the first time during Thursday's session.
The Nifty index reached a new high of 22,852, while the Sensex surged to 74,917, slightly below its all-time high of 75,124.
PM Modi said in an interview, "Wait and watch on June 4; the programmers behind the stock market will get tired of the action." He indicated that the financial markets would set new records after June 4, the day the Election Commission will count the votes of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections.
On Thursday, both indices surged to record highs after a flat opening. The Nifty index started at 22,614 points, and the Sensex began at 74,253 points. All indices in the broader market opened in green with marginal gains.
According to market experts, Indian indices had shown mixed performance over the previous week amid the ongoing elections, but investor confidence in the Indian market is rising as the result date approaches.
"Indian markets have defied muted global trends to recapture previous highs today after 14 days of the previous high. Financials were at the forefront today, benefitting from the RBI announcement of a higher-than-estimated dividend to the Union government," said Ajay Bagga, Banking and Market expert.
Asian markets saw mixed trading, with Japan's Nikkei 225 up 1.3 per cent and Taiwan Weighted up by 55 points on strong Nvidia earnings, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell more than 1 per cent.
The US tech company Nvidia's Q1 earnings, posted on Thursday, showed net income surged to USD 14.88 billion, up from USD 2.04 billion a year earlier, with revenue tripling to USD 26.04 billion.
—ANI