Indian equity markets surged on Monday in early trade after the exit polls predicted a comfortable victory for the BJP-led NDA government in the Lok Sabha elections that concluded with voting in its seventh an final phase on Sunday.
The Sensex jumped over 950 points to 38,892 at day’s high while Nifty rose to 11,694.
Top gainers on the 50-scrip index were Indiabulls Housing Finance, Larsen & Toubro, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Maruti Suzuki India and Mahindra & Mahindra, trading between 3.49 per cent and 4.60 per cent higher.
The rupee rose to a two-week high of 69.36 against the US dollar, as compared to its Friday’s close of 70.23.
The counting of votes will take place on May 23 and the results will be declared on the same day.
Most exit polls conducted by different organisations have given the BJP-led NDA full majority, even as opposition parties are dismissing these predictions.
Two exit polls by Times Now give the NDA 296 and 306 seats and predict 126 and 132 for the Congress-led UPA. On the other hand, the CVoter-Republic exit poll forecasts 287 seats for the NDA and 128 for the UPA.
Meanwhile, Neta-News X said the NDA would fall short of the majority, winning 242 seats. It gives the UPA 164 seats.
A News18 exit poll said NDA would win 292-312 seats and UPA would get only 62-72.
The Trinamool Congress is set to shrink in 2019 Lok Sabha polls to 29 seats, according to the CVoter and 13-21 seats as per Jan Ki Baat. The Congress is likely to win 2 and 3 seats as per the CVoter and Jan Ki Baat, respectively, in West Bengal.
The majority mark is 272.
However, the Exit polls in the past have not got the results right every time so the real picture will be clear only on May 23, when the votes polled at all 542 seats in the seven phases will be counted.