Mumbai: The BSE Sensex continued its record-setting spree for a second day, scaling a new high of 35,476.70 in opening trade on Thursday as banking stocks led rally on sustained foreign fund inflows.
Also, the broader NSE Nifty zoomed to a new high of 10,887.10.
The 30-share index rallied by 394.88 points, or 1.12 per cent, to hit the peak of 35,476.70, breaching its previous intra-day high of 35,118.61 hit on Wednesday.
Foreign investors put in Rs6.25 billion in stocks on net basis on Wednesday, while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs1.68 billion, provisional data showed.
All the sectoral indices, led by banking, FMCG and capital goods were trading in the positive zone with gains up to 1.92 per cent.
The 50-share NSE Nifty gained 98.55 points, or 0.91 per cent, to trade at lifetime high of 10,887.10. The gauge had touched an intra-day high of 10,803 on Wednesday’s trade.
In the banking space, Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, SBI, Axis Bank, Kotak Bank, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were prominent gainers.
Stocks of Hindustan Unilever were up by 0.81 per cent to Rs1,382.95 after the company posted better-than-expected earnings on Wednesday.
Hero MotoCorp, M&M, L&T, Dr Reddy’s, ITC Ltd, Bajaj Auto, ONGC and Sun Pharma were the other gainers during initial trade.
Brokers said continued buying by foreign funds as well as retail investors after the government’s decision to slash its additional borrowing requirement for the current fiscal to Rs200 billion (Dh11.5 billion) from Rs500 billion, estimated earlier and encouraging Q3 earnings by some bluechip companies lifted the key indices to new highs.
Besides, a firm trend in the global markets also boosted sentiments, they said.
Among other Asian markets, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.41 per cent, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.46 per cent in early trade on Thursday. Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.32 per cent.
The US Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1.25 per cent higher on Wednesday’s trade.
