Sensex ends at record high, Nifty back above 9,650; IT, SBI jump 2% each

NEW DELHI: Dalal Street witnessed a bull charge in Thursday’s trade, lifting the domestic equity indices towards record highs. While BSE Sensex scaled a record closing high of 31,369, the Nifty50 ended the day near its all-time closing peak, just shy of 9,700. Realty and bank stocks hogged limelight as BSE realty index rose 1.57 per cent and Nifty Bank hovered above the 23,000 mark.

Shares of Hester Biosciences (up 20 per cent), JBM Auto (up 18.82 per cent), Vishnu Chemicals (up 16.85 per cent), Oriental Carbon (up 16 per cent), Hindustan Composites (up 14.67 per cent), Zen Technologies (up 12.56 per cent) and JVL Agro Industries (up 12.34 per cent) zoomed up to 20 per cent on BSE in Thursday's trade.

Market gathers momentum; Sensex jumps nearly 200 pts, Nifty50 nears 9,700.

Shares of Punjab National Bank (number of shares traded: 0.96 crore) emerged as the most active stocks in terms of volume on NSE after Japanese brokerage firm Nomura upgraded its rating from ‘Neutral’ to ‘Buy’ on account of stock price correction in recent times. Other most traded stocks on NSE were SBI (0.94 crore), ITC (0.71 crore), Ashok Leyland (0.63 crore), DLF (0.62 crore), Bank of Baroda (0.58 crore), Vedanta Ltd (0.52 crore) and ICICI Bank (0.46 crore).

Global financial services firm Credit Suisse added domestic FMCG major ITCBSE 1.48 % to its Asia ex-Japan focus list after the recent clarity on GST.

Axis Bank fell 0.64 per cent in morning trade to Rs 510.50 as the stock turned ex-dividend for final dividend of Rs 5 per share for FY17.

Over 50 stocks hit their fresh 52-week high on NSE in Thursday's early trade despite benchmark indices opened flat following Asian peers.

The scrip was trading 8.21 per cent up at Rs 26.35 around 9.40 am (IST). Shares of the company opened at Rs 27 and touched an intraday high and low of Rs 27.30 and Rs 26.25, respectively, in trade so far.

The Nobel laureate said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s performance is a bit below expectations and called on the government and RBI to spur economic growth by cutting rates and increasing fiscal spending.

Sensex, Nifty open flat; Shriram EPC up 9%, Videocon 5%; Cipla down 1%

Sensex above 31,300; Nifty up 18 points at 9,645; Rupee opens at 64.75 against US dollar

Reliance Industries on Wednesday toppled TCS to become the country’s most-valued firm in terms of market capitalisation after a week. At the close of trade on Wednesday, the market capitalisation (m-cap) of RIL stood at Rs 4,68,160.44 crore, Rs 3,582.79 crore more than TCS’ Rs 4,64,577.65 crore valuation.

Fed policymakers were increasingly split on the outlook for inflation and how it might affect the future pace of interest rate rises, according to the minutes of the central bank's June 13-14 policy meeting released on Wednesday. According to a Reuters report, several officials also wanted to announce a start to the process of reducing the Fed's large portfolio of Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities by the end of August but others preferred to wait until later in the year.

Oil prices inched higher following a steep decline on Wednesday. US crude was up 1 per cent at $45.59 a barrel early on Thursday after tumbling by as much as 5.4 per cent on Wednesday.

The rupee turned weak once again on Wednesday after a brief recovery against the US currency and ended 4 paise lower at 64.78 on fresh demand for the greenback from banks and exporters amid geopolitical uneasiness.

US stocks traded mixed in overnight trade. The Dow Jones Industrial Average index fell 1.1 points, or 0.01 per cent, to 21,478. But the S&P500 index added 3.53 points, or 0.15 per cent, to 2,432. The Nasdaq Composite index gained 40.80 points, or 0.67 per cent, to 6,150.

Asian shares were tentative on Thursday after minutes from the US Fed’s last meeting showed a lack of consensus on the future pace of interest rate increases, reported Reuters. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was little changed early on Thursday. While Japan’s Nikkei slipped 0.15 per cent, South Korea’s Kospi was flat and Australian shares were down 0.15 per cent.

On the technical chart, the Nifty50 formed an Inside Bar on Wednesday, which suggests it traded within a range of high and low of the previous session. Analysts said the index may keep on consolidating unless any decisive move takes it past the 9,590-9,650 range.

At 6.00 am, Nifty50 futures on the Singapore Stock Exchange were trading mere 3.5 points down at 9,651, indicating a flat opening for the domestic market.

The domestic equity market recovered from Tuesday’s losses to close marginally higher on Wednesday. The BSE Sensex ended 36 points higher at 31,245 while the Nifty50 rose 24 points to close at 9,637 after rangebound trading through the day. Earlier, Sensex had opened the day with a gap up at 31,272 against the previous close of 31,209.