Sensex and Nifty, the domestic equity indices, touched their new record closing high levels on Monday, after strong foreign fund inflows and a largely firm trend in Asian markets. Rising for the third consecutive day, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 384.30 points, or 0.45 per cent, to settle at an all-time high of 84,928.61. While trading during the day, Sensex rose 436.22 points, or 0.51 per cent, to hit a fresh lifetime intra-day peak of 84,980.53.
Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty rose 148.10 points, or 0.57 per cent, to close at a record peak of 25,939.05. During the day, it soared 165.05 points, or 0.63 per cent, to reach a new intra-day all-time high of 25,956. This comes amid a rising foreign funds influx. According to exchange data, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought Rs 14,064.05 crore worth of equities on Friday.
From Sensex firms, State Bank of India, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Adani Ports, UltraTech Cement, and Tata Steel were the biggest gainers while ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Asian Paints, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, and Larsen & Toubro were among the laggards.
V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said, “The charging bull got a shot of steroids from the Fed when it cut interest rates by 50 bps on September 18th. More than the rate cut, it was the Fed chief’s optimistic commentary that lifted the markets sharply.”
Talking about the Asian markets, Shanghai and Seoul settled higher while Hong Kong ended lower. In Japan, markets were closed on Monday for a holiday. However, European markets were trading mixed. On Friday, the US markets ended on a mixed note. Regarding oil, Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.09 per cent to USD 74.55 a barrel.
(With PTI Inputs)