India stocks soar in salute to Modi win, then retreat

India's benchmark stock index soared over 6 per cent to a record high on Friday afternoon after Narendra Modi and his party BJP scored a landslide poll victory, and then pulled back on profit-taking. The Bombay Stock Exchange index, known as the Sensex, climbed 6.15 per cent to 25,375.63 points as results showed Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on track for a parliamentary majority after the marathon staggered poll. But the Sensex then gave up a big chunk of its gains to close up just 0.90 per cent at 24,121.74 points. ‘The Sensex gave the election results a booming salute early on and then did what markets usually do – which is to look at the road ahead,’ Alok Churiwala, head of Churiwala Securities in Mumbai, told AFP. However, he hoped that the undertone of the Indian market will now be bullish and the Sensex could surge to a record 26,500 points in a few months.