Fantastic Friday: Sensex Crosses 60k-Mark, Fastest 10,000 Points Run In Just Eight Months

New Delhi: Equity benchmarks continued to scale record peaks on Friday with the benchmark BSE sensex closing above the 60,000-mark for the first time. Sensex jumped 163 points or 27% to settle at fresh high of 60,048; while the broader NSE Nifty moved 30 points or 0.17% to close at 17,853.

Top gainers in the Sensex pack included Asian Paints, Mahindra & Mahindra, HCL Tech, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel and Maruti with their shares rising as much as 3.72%.

On the other hand Tata Steel, SBI, Axis Bank and ITC finished in red.

Nifty IT outperformed the index by rising 0.78%. Sub-index Nifty Metal fell as much as 2.10%.

Fastest 10,000 Points Run For Sensex

It took just eight months for Sensex to jump from 50,000 to 60,000-mark. The 30-share BSE index touched 50k in January this year and hit 60k in September.

BSE Chief Executive Officer Ashish Kumar Chauhan along with other officials celebrated the historic run of the BSE index by a cake cutting ceremony. The celebratory balloons were released to mark the feat.

"Sensex reaching 60,000 today is an indicator of India's growth potential, as well as the way India is emerging as a world leader during COVID period in addition to worldwide monetary expansion and relaxed fiscal policies adopted by world powers," said Mr Chauhan, MD and CEO, BSE.

Sensex was at 1,000 points in 1990 and took nearly 25 years before it touched the 30k-level in 2015. The index has climbed from the 30k-mark to 60,000 in a little over six years.

"With the Sensex crossing the crucial 60,000 mark, the frontline indexes closed higher for the week, supported by better clarity on the Fed tapering of the bond buying program after the FOMC statement which said that the tapering may happen soon, and the broad indications that the rate action may be much later next year," said Joseph Thomas, Head of Research, Emkay Wealth Management.