Nifty hits fresh all-time high; Sensex climbs 150 points

MUMBAI: Benchmark equity indices ended higher on Wednesday, with the Nifty hitting its fresh record closing level, mainly due to buying in power, capital goods and industrial stocks amid a largely positive trend in global equities.

Besides, a heavy rush on select index-heavyweight counters like HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries boosted investors' sentiment, traders said.

In a highly volatile trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 149.98 points or 0.20 per cent to settle at 76,606.57. During the day, it jumped 593.94 points or 0.77 per cent to 77,050.53. The BSE benchmark is just 28.51 points away from breaching its previous lifetime peak of 77,079.04.

The NSE Nifty went up by 177.1 points or 0.76 per cent to hit its new all-time intra-day high of 23,441.95. It ended at a new closing peak of 23,322.95, up 58.10 points or 0.25 per cent.

"After opening on a positive note, the market continued to move up for the better part of the session. Intraday weakness in between has been used as a buying opportunity," Nagaraj Shetti, Senior Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities, said.

Power Grid was the biggest gainer on the Sensex chart, rising 2.54 per cent, followed by Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, NTPC, UltraTech Cement, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finserv and HCL Technologies.

In contrast, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys and Titan were among the laggards.

In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge jumped 1.07 per cent and smallcap index climbed 1.06 per cent.

Among the sectoral indices, industrials, power, capital goods, energy, commodities, healthcare, and metal were among the biggest gainers.

On the other hand, realty and FMCG were the laggards.

"Ahead of US inflation data and FOMC meeting, global markets largely remained positive. The consensus indicates expectations of stable US inflation, but the trajectory of potential rate cuts holds significant importance for future direction, as rate cut expectations have tempered to 2 from 3 earlier.

"The domestic market is trading at new high on expectations of the final budget with a focus on growth, which was amplified by the RBI's upgrade in GDP growth forecast," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said.

In Asian markets, Seoul and Shanghai settled in the positive territory, while Tokyo and Hong Kong ended lower.

European markets were trading mostly with gains during the mid-session deals. US markets ended mostly higher on Tuesday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 1.16 per cent to USD 82.87 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 111.04 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

The BSE benchmark Sensex declined 33.49 points or 0.04 per cent to settle at 76,456.59 on Tuesday. In a volatile trade, the Nifty ended marginally up by 5.65 points or 0.02 per cent at 23,264.85.

"For the third consecutive day, markets remained within a narrow range and ended with slight gains...After three days of consolidation, markets are expected to react to the outcome of the US Fed meeting in early trade on Thursday, which could set the tone for the day," said Ajit Mishra - SVP, Research, Religare Broking Ltd.