Sensex, Nifty hit fresh peaks on firm global cues, foreign fund inflows

Mumbai, Apr 8 (PTI) Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty reached their fresh record highs on Monday, amid optimism in global markets and foreign fund inflows.

Buying in index major Reliance Industries also fuelled the rally in equities.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 494.28 points or 0.67 per cent to settle at a new closing peak of 74,742.50. During the day, it zoomed 621.08 points or 0.83 per cent to reach a record intra-day high of 74,869.30.

The NSE Nifty climbed 152.60 points or 0.68 per cent to 22,666.30. During the day, it jumped 183.6 points or 0.81 per cent to hit a lifetime high of 22,697.30.

From the Sensex basket, Maruti, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC, JSW Steel, Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Industries, Axis Bank, and Power Grid were the major gainers.

Nestle, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank, Titan, HCL Technologies and Infosys were the laggards. “Global equities posted mostly modest moves as investors prepared for a busy week that includes US inflation data, and European Central Bank interest rate decision,” said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.

In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge climbed 0.26 per cent while smallcap index dipped 0.06 per cent. Auto index climbed 1.65 per cent, oil & gas jumped 1.51 per cent, energy (1.24 per cent), consumer discretionary (1.14 per cent), realty (1.21 per cent), metal (1.10 per cent) and utilities (0.90 per cent).

Services, teck and IT were the laggards. A total of 266 stocks hit their 52-week high while 12 hit their 52-week low on the BSE. In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong settled in the positive territory while Shanghai ended lower. European markets were trading in the positive zone. Wall Street ended with gains on Friday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 1,659.27 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.81 per cent to USD 90.43 a barrel.

“The buoyancy in sentiment continued, led by sectorial tailwinds and Q4 earnings growth expectations. The up-move was largely broad-based, with outperformance by auto, reality, oil & gas, and consumer discretionary, while IT was tepid owing to insipid Q4 growth expectations due to a slowdown in spending,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.