Sensex Surges Over 400 Points, Nifty Above 15,200 For First Time

The Indian equity benchmarks extended their rally to seventh day and created record highs for yet another session on the back of strong corporate earnings. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening and extended gains in afternoon trading led by gains in Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Asian Paints and Infosys. The Sensex rose as much as 405 points to hit record high of 51,753.42 and Nifty 50 index touched an all-time high of 15,237.90.

As of 12:00 pm, the Sensex rose 364 points to 51,712 and Nifty 50 index climbed 109 points to 15,225.

The benchmark stock indexes hit multiple all-time highs in recent sessions as investors cheered last week's high-spending and growth-focused budget aimed at reviving the economy. Strong foreign inflows, solid corporate earnings and buoyant global markets have also aided sentiment, analysts said.

"Most companies reporting third-quarter results have beaten Street estimates by an exceptional margin, which is feeding optimism for domestic and foreign investors who have already been impressed by the budget," Likhita Chepa, senior research analyst at Capitalvia Global Research told Reuters.

Eight of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty PSU Bank index's over 2 per cent gain. Nifty Bank, Realty, IT, Financial Service and Metal indexes also rose between 0.5-1 per cent each.

On the other hand, Nifty Auto, Media and pharma indexes were trading with a negative bias.

Mid- and small-cap shares were underperforming their larger peers as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.4 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.3 per cent.

Asian Paints was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 4 per cent to Rs 2,514. ONGC, HDFC Life, SBI Life, Titan, Wipro, Indian Oil, Power Grid, UPL, ICICI Bank and Bharat Petroleum also rose between 1.3-3 per cent.

On the flipside, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, JSW Steel, Bajaj Finserv and Hero MotoCorp were among the notable laggards.

Shares of Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail rose as much as 10 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 80.50 a day after Delhi High Court overturned its previous order that had stalled Future Group's Rs 24,713 crore deal to sell its retail assets to Reliance Retail.

The overall market breadth was marginally positive as 1,424 shares were trading higher while 1,278 were declining on the BSE.