Sensex conquers Mount 85K for first time ever; Nifty nears 26,000-level

MUMBAI: Benchmark equity indices rebounded after falling in early trade on Tuesday, with the Sensex breaching the 85,000 mark for the first time ever and the Nifty nearing the 26,000 level, amid sharp rally in Asian markets and buying in blue-chip HDFC Bank.

Recovering all the early lost ground, the 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 123.81 points to scale a fresh all-time peak of 85,052.42. The NSE Nifty also went up by 39.85 points to hit a new record high of 25,978.90. The benchmark is just 21.1 points away from breaching the historic 26,000 mark.

From the 30 Sensex firms, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Power Grid, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors and Larsen & Toubro were the biggest gainers.

Hindustan Unilever, Infosys, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and UltraTech Cement were among the laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading in the positive territory. Shanghai and Hong Kong markets were quoting significantly higher.

The US markets ended higher on Monday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 404.42 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.

S&P Global Ratings on Tuesday retained India's growth forecast at 6.8 per cent for the current fiscal and said it expects the RBI to start cutting interest rates in its October monetary policy review.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.93 per cent to USD 74.59 a barrel.

Rallying for the third day running on Monday, the BSE benchmark jumped 384.30 points or 0.45 per cent to settle at an all-time high of 84,928.61. During the day, it soared 436.22 points or 0.51 per cent to hit a fresh lifetime intra-day peak of 84,980.53.

The NSE Nifty climbed 148.10 points or 0.57 per cent to close at a record peak of 25,939.05. During the day, it zoomed 165.05 points or 0.63 per cent to reach a new intra-day all-time high of 25,956.