Sensex, Nifty hit all-time high levels in special live trading session

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty hit fresh all-time peaks in a special trading session on Saturday, extending their previous day's sharp rally, amid impressive GDP data and foreign fund inflows.

Leading stock exchanges BSE and NSE are conducting a special trading session in the equity and equity derivative segments on Saturday to check their preparedness to handle major disruption or failure at the primary site.

The special live trading session will have an intra-day switchover from the Primary Site (PR) to the Disaster Recovery (DR) site.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 236.77 points to reach its all-time high of 73,982.12 in early trade. The Nifty went up by 81.5 points to hit its record peak of 22,420.25.

There will be two trading sessions -- the first from 9:15 am to 10 am on the PR, and the second from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm on the DR site, according to the exchanges.

"Trading members are requested to note that the exchange will conduct a special live trading session with the intraday switch over from Primary Site (PR) to Disaster Recovery Site (DR) on Saturday, March 2, in equity and equity derivatives segments," BSE and NSE said in separate circulars.

Among the Sensex firms, Tata Steel, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Motors and State Bank of India were the major gainers.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Titan, ICICI Bank and NTPC were among the laggards.

India's economy grew by better-than-expected 8.4 per cent in the final three months of 2023 -- the fastest pace in one-and-half years.

The US markets ended with gains on Friday.

India's manufacturing sector growth climbed to a five-month high in February amid a sharper uptick in factory production and sales, supported by both domestic and external demand, a monthly survey said on Friday.

The seasonally adjusted HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose from 56.5 in January to 56.9 in February, pointing to the strongest improvement in the health of the sector since September 2023.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 128.94 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

The BSE benchmark jumped 1,245.05 points or 1.72 per cent to reach 73,745.35 -- its all-time closing peak. The Nifty climbed 355.95 points or 1.62 per cent to settle at a new closing high of 22,338.75.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 2 per cent to USD 83.55 a barrel.