Mumbai, May 18 (IANS) Trading was halted for two hours at Indian equities markets Monday as stocks jumped up more than 10 percent right on the opening bell on the news of the victory of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in the general elections. Key indices breached the “upper circuit”, leading to the halt.
On opening, the 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), rose 10.73 percent from its previous close of 12,173.42 points and hit the upper circuit at 13,479.39 points. At this level, trading was stopped till 11:55 a.m.

The jump, triggered by Saturday’s victory of the UPA in the general elections, breached the “circuit breaker” kept to ensure the market doesn’t move up and down too quickly and too much, according to the BSE website.

Similarly, the S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also hit the upper circuit after rising 531.65 points to 4,203.30. It closed Friday at 3,671.65 points.

Broader BSE indices also shot up, with the BSE midcap index rising 7.25 percent from the last closing figure and the BSE smallcap index up 5.1 percent.

A total of 406.5 million shares worth Rs.5,113.7 crore were traded at the BSE in a matter of minutes Monday. The average daily turnover at the BSE is Rs.5641.7 crore.

All 30 scrips that are part of the Sensex were immediately in the positive terrain. Prominent among them were Reliance Communications, up 19.72 percent at Rs.278; Reliance Infra, up 19.45 percent at Rs.978; L&T, up 18.81 percent at Rs.1,174; and Jaiprakash Associates, up 17.99 percent at Rs.165.90.