Gujarat, Himachal election results 2017: Sensex erases losses, climbs nearly 1%

Investors in the Indian equity markets were nervous on Monday ahead of the Gujarat and Himachal Election results. The BSE Sensex opened over 2% down at 32,659.96 points while the bigger 50 scrip Nifty 50 on NSE opened 0.68% or 70 points lower at 10,263.10 points.

Investor sentiment quickly picked up with Sensex erasing losses as much as 2.06% to rise 0.7% at 1010 hours. Live counting of the Gujarat elections showed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in the lead with 105 seats and Congress at 73 seats.

In the pre-market trading BSE Sensex was 0.29% or 98.45 points down at 33,364.52 points.

The Indian National Rupee also opened lower at Rs 64.15 against the US dollar value.

Industry experts estimated that markets may touch a record high on Monday with Nifty 50 touching 10400 mark.

Most of the exit polls conducted soon after voting day in Gujarat suggested a win for BJP.

The live counting of 182 Assembly seats that began on Monday recorded a lead for BJP. While the live counting of Himachal Pradesh Assembly Elections revealed BJP had an early lead of 30 seats and Congress stood at 19 seats only.

Early gainers on BSE Sensex were SKF India (0.84%), Eclerx Services Ltd (0.83%) and Cipla at 0.54%.

Shares of Adani companies dropped considerably on Monday after the company announced that it has cancelled plans with Downer EDI Ltd to help develop and run its Carmichael coal mine in Australia.

Losers on BSE Sensex in early trade were Sintex (7.51%), Adani Enterprises (6.79%), Adani Power (6.67%), GNFC (6.17%) and Adani Transmission (5.79%).

Adani Group failed to secure a cheap government loan for the A$16.5 billion ($13 billion) project.