Sharp IT stocks rally lifts markets to new lifetime high; Sensex soars nearly 850 pts

Mumbai: Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty surged over 1 per cent to hit their fresh all-time highs on Friday, driven by a stellar rally in IT stocks after TCS and Infosys reported better-than-expected financial results.

The 30-share BSE Sensex zoomed 847.27 points or 1.18 per cent to settle at a new closing high of 72,568.45. During the day, it jumped 999.78 points or 1.39 per cent to reach a new intra-day record of 72,720.96.

The Nifty climbed 247.35 points or 1.14 per cent to settle at a lifetime closing high of 21,894.55. During the day, it rallied 281.05 points or 1.29 per cent to reach its fresh intra-day record peak of 21,928.25.

Infosys jumped nearly 8 per cent after the company's December quarter earnings came in line with market expectations.

Tata Consultancy Services climbed nearly 4 per cent after the largest software exporter reported an 8.2 per cent growth in net income for the December quarter at Rs 11,735 crore, driven by a massive growth in the home market that offset to a large extent the impact of a 3 per cent degrowth in the US market.

The other prominent gainers were Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Wipro, State Bank of India and Larsen & Toubro.

Bajaj Finserv, Power Grid, UltraTech Cement and HDFC Bank were among the laggards.

IT majors Wipro and HCLTech will release their financial results later in the day.

In addition, the Industrial Production (IIP) and consumer price index (CPI) inflation data will be released after market hours on Friday.

The BSE Information Technology index jumped 5.06 per cent, the most among the sectoral indices. Teck also gained 4.40 per cent.

"Indian markets soared to new heights in a powerful rally, driven by IT heavyweights. Green shoots of recovery in the IT sector on the back of an improved outlook for BFSI in FY25 positively influenced market sentiments. The robust performance of PSU banking stocks is underscored by the inherent synergy between their loan portfolios and the prevailing business cycle.

"Noteworthy is the fact that this upward surge remained resilient amid mixed global cues on account of higher-than-expected US inflation and positive job data, which tempered expectations for an imminent rate cut by the US Fed," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

In Asian markets, Tokyo settled higher, while Seoul, Shanghai and Hong Kong ended lower.

European markets were trading in positive territory. The US markets ended mostly in the green on Thursday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 2.49 per cent to USD 79.34 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 865 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

The BSE benchmark climbed 63.47 points or 0.09 per cent to settle at 71,721.18 on Thursday. The Nifty gained 28.50 points or 0.13 per cent to 21,647.20.