Indian share markets continued their momentum and ended their day on a strong note today. The benchmark indices ended their session at record-highs as the three-day Monetary Policy Committee meeting kicked off.
Gains were largely seen in the auto sector, energy sector, and consumer durables sector.
At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 553 points (up 1.4%) and the NSE Nifty closed higher by 165 points (up 1.4%).
The BSE Mid Cap index ended up by 0.9%, while the BSE Small Cap index ended the day up by 0.5%.
Asian stock markets finished on a negative note as of the most recent closing prices. The Hang Seng stood down by 0.03% and the Nikkei was trading down by 0.9%, while the Shanghai Composite was trading down by 0.3%.
European markets were also trading on a negative note. The FTSE 100 was down by 0.2%. The DAX was trading down by 0.04%, while the CAC 40 was down by 0.07%.
The rupee was trading at 69.29 to the US$ at the time of writing.
In the news from macroeconomic space, in the first meeting of cabinet ministers, the Modi 2.0 government approved a proposal to extend the benefit of Rs 6,000 per year under the PM-KISAN scheme to all farmers in the country.
The scheme is extended to all the 14.5 crore farmers in the country costing Rs 870 billion a year.
The Cabinet also announced over Rs 100 billion pension scheme for 5 crore farmers, thereby fulfilling the BJP's poll promise. Under this scheme, small and marginal farmers will get a minimum fixed pension of Rs 3,000 per month on attaining the age of 60 years.
The above decisions were taken in the first cabinet meeting of the new NDA government. In its manifesto for 2019 general elections, the BJP had promised to extend the scheme to all farmers.
Speaking of Modi 2.0, the newly elected government is also likely to focus on infrastructure spending.
This we say is because if there's one area that needs immediate attention by the government, it is job creation.
According to a CMIE survey, the unemployment number stands at 41 million people. That is too big a number to be ignored.
Now, job creation at such a mass level won't be a walk in the park. To set the wheels in motion, the government will have to look at infrastructure spending.
And as we can see in the chart below, capacity expansion in new projects has seen a gradual slowdown recently.
Here's what Tanushree Banerjee wrote about it in one of the recent editions of The 5 Minute WrapUp...
This is just one of the 50 irreversible trends Tanushree believes will carry the Sensex to 1,00,000.
In the news from the commodity space, Saudi Aramco has raised its July price for its Arab Light grade oil for Asian customers by US$ 0.60 a barrel from June.
The price now stands at a premium of US$ 2.70 per barrel to the Oman/Dubai average.
In other news, crude oil was witnessing selling pressure today after the Trump administration said it was ready to talk with Iran about its nuclear programme without any preconditions.
The statement followed President Trump's comment last week that he was ready to talk to Iranian leaders and was not seeking regime change, overruling a longtime goal of his national security adviser.
The statement also recalibrated that the United States would not lift sanctions on Iran unless it complied with a dozen sweeping demands.
Tracking the above news, Brent crude futures tumbled 1.5% to US$ 61.06 a barrel.
Speaking of crude oil, Vijay Bhambwani, editor of Weekly Cash Alerts, called the US President Donald Trump's bluff on crude oil in one of his recent articles. Here's an excerpt of what he wrote...
To know more, you can read Vijay's entire article here: Crude Oil - What 'Trump Nation' Really Wants
And to know what's moving the Indian stock markets, check out the most recent share market updates here.
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