Stocks soar: Sensex, Nifty again surge to fresh highs

Mumbai: Registering fresh record closing highs for the fourth straight session, Sensex sailed past 65,400 points and Nifty crossed 19,300 points on Tuesday, as foreign fund flows and overall optimism over the economy continued to fuel the market rally.

Besides, unabated foreign fund inflows and heavy buying in financial and IT counters added to the optimism in the equity market.

Rallying for the fifth straight session, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 274 points or 0.42 per cent to settle at its all-time closing high of 65,479.05. During the day, the benchmark surged 467.92 points or 0.71 per cent to hit its lifetime intra-day peak of 65,672.97.

The NSE Nifty climbed 66.45 points or 0.34 per cent to end at a fresh record high of 19,389. In the session, it advanced 111.6 points or 0.57 per cent to hit its all-time intra-day peak of 19,434.15.

In the last four sessions of a record-making spree, the blue-chip 30-share Sensex surged more than 1,500 points and the Nifty jumped over 400 points.

"The market is maintaining its optimism; however, a profit-booking tendency is visible at the upper band as the recent rally has raised the market to the historic new high range. The momentum of the market has shifted from the frontlines of this year to the laggards like IT, commodities, and PSUBs," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Bajaj Finance was the best performer in the Sensex chart, spurting 7.71 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finserv, Tech Mahindra, Sun Pharma, NTPC, Titan, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys, State Bank of India and ITC.

On the other hand, Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank, Reliance Industries, IndusInd Bank, Tata Steel and UltraTech Cement were among the laggards.

In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge dipped 0.22 per cent while smallcap index ended marginally up by 0.05 per cent.

Among the indices, IT climbed 0.84 per cent, financial services rallied 0.73 per cent, teck advanced 0.54 per cent, consumer durables moved up by 0.37 per cent and FMCG (0.22 per cent).

Telecommunication declined 1.17 per cent, oil & gas went lower by 0.66 per cent, auto fell by 0.56 per cent, consumer discretionary (0.27 per cent), and commodities (0.20 per cent) were among the laggards.

"Buoyancy in the markets continued as benchmark indices touched new highs despite mixed Asian cues and weak European markets in early trades.

"The cushion provided by Indian markets on the back of its strong fundamentals are offsetting some of the negative catalysts seen in key developed economies, and strong backing by the FIIs in recent weeks is a testimony to it," Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Research (Retail), Kotak Securities Ltd, said.

In Asian markets, Shanghai and Hong Kong settled in the green, while Seoul and Tokyo ended lower.

Equity markets in Europe were trading on a mixed note in the mid-session deals. The US market ended in positive territory on Monday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 1.15 per cent to USD 75.51 a barrel.

Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) bought equities worth Rs 1,995.92 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.

FPIs pumped Rs 47,148 crore in the Indian equities in June, making it the highest inflow in 10 months.