Benchmark equity indices scaled fresh all-time closing highs on Friday, propelled by foreign fund inflows and a firm trend in the global markets. Intense buying in index heavyweights Infosys, HDFC twins, Reliance Industries and TCS further bolstered sentiment, traders said.
Rallying for the third straight day, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 803.14 points or 1.26 per cent to settle at its lifetime closing high of 64,718.56. During the day, it zoomed 853.16 points or 1.33 per cent to reach its record intra-day peak of 64,768.58.
The NSE Nifty climbed 216.95 points or 1.14 per cent to end at a record high of 19,189.05. During the day, it rallied 229.6 points or 1.21 per cent to hit its all-time intra-day peak of 19,201.70. Mahindra & Mahindra was the best performer in the Sensex pack, rising over 4 per cent, followed by IndusInd Bank, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Maruti, Larsen & Toubro, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Power Grid, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Bajaj Finance and Reliance Industries. On the other hand, ICICI Bank and NTPC were the laggards.
In Asian markets, Seoul and Shanghai ended in the green while Tokyo and Hong Kong settled lower. Equity markets in Europe were trading with gains. The US markets ended largely with gains in the overnight trade on Thursday. “The lack of global support had restrained the Indian indices from pursuing their record highs earlier, despite the presence of a resilient domestic macroeconomic background.
“With positive surprises assisting buoyancy in the global market and the advance of the southwest monsoon, the domestic market succeeded in marching to new highs with renewed strength. Global investor sentiments were uplifted by a favourable revision in Q1 GDP, a fall in jobless claims, and the positive outcome of the Fed’s US bank stress test,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.61 per cent to USD 74.79 a barrel. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 12,350 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data. The BSE benchmark had surged 499.39 points or 0.79 per cent to settle at its lifetime closing high of 63,915.42 on Wednesday. The Nifty climbed 154.70 points or 0.82 per cent to end at a record high of 18,972.10. Markets were closed on Thursday on account of Eid al-Adha also known as Bakrid.
