Even after seeing a slow start, benchmark equity indices — Sensex and Nifty — hit new high Wednesday, buoyed by gains in banking stocks. In the intraday trade, while the BSE Sensex soared 358 points to a fresh peak of 40,606, Nifty topped 12,000 after five months. Sensex ended the trade 221 points higher at a new high of 40,469. Similarly, NSE Nifty settled 0.37 per cent higher at 11,961. Nifty Bank outperformed among major indices and ended up 1 per cent. Top gainers in the Sensex pack included ICICI Bank, Infosys, HDFC, IndusInd Bank, Tata Motors, Kotak Bank, Axis Bank, L&T, Yes Bank and HUL, spurting up to 2.64 per cent. On the other hand, Bharti Airtel, RIL, Bajaj Finance, ONGC, HCL Tech, ITC, and Sun Pharma slipped up to 3.31 per cent. Infosys shares hit an intraday high of 3 per cent after company chairman Nandan Nilekani hit back at whistleblower complaints.
“We continue to maintain our cautious stance on the Indian markets in the absence of any positive domestic as well as global triggers. With indices trading at record highs, some profit taking cannot be ruled out in the near term. Market participants would keep a close watch on the on-going corporate earnings, global developments and movement in crude and currency, as it would induce some volatility in the markets,” Ajit Mishra Vice President, Research, Religare Broking said.
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The stock markets are on a rise on account of strong earnings, hopes for another economic booster from the government and positive cues from global markets, news agency PTI reported experts as saying.
Meanwhile, the Indian rupee depreciated by 28 paise to 70.97 against the US dollar intraday. The brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 0.81 per cent to USD 62.45 per barrel.