Sensex scales fresh lifetime high, Nifty ends above 16,350; IT stocks lead

Benchmark equity indices extended morning gains and touched fresh record highs on Thursday tracking gains in PSU banks, IT companies, and realty stocks. Sensex ended 318.05 points or 0.58% higher at its all-time peak of 54,843.98. The broader NSE Nifty advanced 82.15 points or 0.26% to record 16,325.15.

“Market breadth continued to be skewed in favour of the bulls amidst mixed global cues and strong support from IT, power and utility stocks. Chinese jitters over tightening regulatory scrutiny of online insurance companies were outweighed by the slowdown in pace of the US inflation data and rebound in UK GDP numbers. US consumer price inflation stood at 5.4% YoY in July, unchanged from June’s data, taking some heat out of concerns over early tapering by the Fed. UK GDP grew by 4.8% QoQ in Q2 as activity and demand rebounded with the easing of covid restrictions,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Gainer & losers

Top gainers & losers on the Sensex.

Sectoral strand

Among the sectoral indices, Nifty IT index rose the most 1.82% followed by Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Realty indices gaining over 1.2% each. Nifty Auto, Nifty Metal, Nifty Bank and Nifty FMCG indices rose in the range of 0.25-0.40%.

On the downside, the Nifty Pharma index lost 1.11%. While the fear gauge India VIX cooled off by 2.67% to 12.37 levels.

Broader market

The broader markets resumed their uptrend and outperformed benchmark indices after continuous sessions of decline as the BSE reduced the ambit of Add-on Price band Framework. The BSE MidCap index ended 1.07% higher at 22,954 level and the BSE SmallCap index settled at 26,357 up by 1.97%.

The market breadth remained in the favor of bulls as 2,359 shares advanced compared to 844 declined and 123 remained unchanged.

Global markets

Most European stocks advanced while most Asian stocks declined on Thursday, as lingering concerns over global COVID-19 cases overshadowed gains on Wall Street after the latest U.S. inflation reading.

Investors continued to monitor the COVID-19 situation in the region after the World Health Organization warned global cases could pass 300 million by early next year if the pandemic continues in its current direction. The projection came just a week after the WHO reported 200 million COVID-19 cases worldwide and six months after the globe topped 100 million cases.

Japanese wholesale prices rose in July at their fastest annual pace in 13 years. The corporate goods price index (CGPI), which measures the price companies charge each other for their goods and services, rose 5.6% in July 2021 from a year earlier, Bank of Japan data showed.

In Australia, Melbourne extended its lockdown by another week as it struggles to contain the highly infectious delta variant.