Sensex climbs 1,300 points; Nifty touches 11,800

Domestic benchmark indices extended their rally on Monday, with the BSE Sensex climbing 1,300 points, while the Nifty touched 11,800 mark as investors cheered exit poll results that showed a likely win for the ruling NDA in the general elections.

The 30-share index was trading 1,341 points, or 3.54 per cent, higher at 39,271.77.

In similar movement, the broader NSE Nifty soared 393.95 points, or 3.45 per cent, to 11,801.10.

Top gainers in the Sensex pack include SBI, Yes Bank, Tata Motors, L&T, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, ONGC, Maruti, M&M, Axis Bank, RIL, Hero MotoCorp, HDFC, Vedanta, Asian Paints, Tata Steel and Bajaj Finance, which rose over 7 per cent.

On the other hand, Bajaj Auto and Infosys slipped up to 1 per cent.

Most exit polls on Sunday forecast another term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with some of them projecting that the BJP-led NDA will get more than 300 seats to comfortably cross the majority mark of 272 in the Lok Sabha.

The results of the seven-phase polls will come out on Thursday.

"If exit polls are right, a BJP single-party majority may result in an up-move of 5-10 per cent of the Nifty in the near term. However, a non-NDA government may lead to a 10-15 per cent correction in Nifty, if we go by market reactions in 2004 and 2009 to big surprises," UBS Securities said in a research note.

Meanwhile, market regulator SEBI and stock exchanges have beefed up their surveillance mechanism to check any manipulative activities in the market this week in view of the high-octane election-related events lined up.

On the currency front, the rupee appreciated by 69 paise to 69.53 against the US dollar.

Brent Crude, the global benchmark, was trading at 72.62 per barrel, higher by 0.57 per cent.