The Indian benchmark indices opened on a strong note on Thursday with both the benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty opening at record highs as the early trend showed the incumbent NDA (National Democratic Alliance) leading in the counting of votes for 2019 Lok Sabha elections, that started 8:00 am today. The shares of IndusInd Bank gained over 5 per cent after the lender’s profit fell 62 per cent in the March quarter as provisions tripled on-year after the lender classified its exposure to embattled infrastructure financier IL&FS as bad loans.

At 9:23 hours, the SENSEX was trading at 39776.98 up by 666.77 points or by 1.7 per cent and then NSE Nifty was at 11901.3 up by 163.4 points or by 1.39 per cent.

The top gainers of the BSE Sensex were IndusInd Bank Ltd. (Rs. 1587.75,+4.63%), State Bank of India (Rs. 353.95,+3.84%), YES Bank Ltd. (Rs. 140.80,+2.25%), Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (Rs. 186.15,+2.22%), Larsen & Toubro Ltd. (Rs. 1491.35,+2.11%), among others. On the flip side, the top losers of the BSE Sensex pack were Oil And Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (Rs. 176.10,-0.25%), among others.

Among sectors, CGS index was at 19132.54 up by 346.82 points or by 1.85%. Thermax Ltd. (Rs. 1010.00,+5.05%), Dilip Buildcon Ltd. (Rs. 594.35,+4.46%), Sadbhav Engineering Ltd. (Rs. 243.00,+4.11%), NBCC (India) Ltd. (Rs. 59.15,+3.50%), Suzlon Energy Ltd. (Rs. 5.81,+3.38%),. On the other hand, HCS index was at 13348.62 down by 58.32 points or by 0.44%. Procter & Gamble Health Ltd. (Rs. 3980.85,-9.56%), Opto Circuits India Ltd. (Rs. 7.02,-1.54%), Natco Pharma Ltd. (Rs. 518.40,-0.87%), Thyrocare Technologies Ltd. (Rs. 438.05,-0.52%), Alkem Laboratories Ltd. (Rs. 1690.00,-0.46%),.

The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 854 , shares advanced were 737 while 101 shares declined and 16 were unchanged.