Indian equity benchmarks surged in one-hour special Diwali Muhurat trading session to mark the beginning of Samvat 2078, the Hindu New year. The Sensex rose as much as 436 points to hit an intraday high of 60,208 and Nifty 50 index moved above its important psychological level of 17,900 led by gains in HDFC Bank, Infosys, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Consultancy Services and Axis Bank amid positive global cues.
As of 6:20 pm, the Sensex was up 347 points at 60,119 and Nifty 50 index advanced 102 points to 17,932.
World stocks hit a record high on Thursday after a smooth start to the US Federal Reserve's mass stimulus unwind plan and as traders waited to see if the Bank of England would be the first major central bank to raise interest rates since COVID hit.
Bollywood Actress Ms. @bhagyashree123 with Shri @ashishchauhan, MD&CEO @BSEIndia and others Ringing the Opening Bell to mark the #Deepavali #MuhuratTrading pic.twitter.com/RESW32auLc
Buying was visible across sectors as all the 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty PSU Bank index's 1.45 per cent gain. Nifty Auto, Financial Services, FMCG, Media, Private Bank and Consumer Durables indices also rose between 0.6-1.15 per cent.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index advanced 0.73 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index climbed 1.15 per cent.
Eicher Motors was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 2.67 per cent to Rs 2,589 after the maker of popular Royal Enfield motorcycle on Wednesday reported net profit Rs 373.20 crore compared with Rs 343.34 crore in the same quarter last year, marking an increase of 9 per cent. Its revenue from operations advanced 5 per cent annually to Rs 2,216 crore.
Tata Motors, State Bank of India, Indian Oil, UPL, Hero MotoCorp, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Auto, Bharat Petroleum and NTPC also rose between 1-1.4 per cent.
Cipla and ICICI Bank were among the notable losers.
The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,371 shares were advancing while 410 were declining on the BSE.
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