Sensex zooms 958 points, Nifty ends above 17,800

Indian benchmark equity indices settled at fresh closing highs on Thursday led by gains in index heavyweights RIL, HDFC twins and ICICI Bank amid a positive trend in global markets. Sensex settled at record 59,885.36, up 958.03 points or 1.63%, while Nifty scaled a fresh peak of 17,822.95, up 276.30 points or 1.57%. Bajaj Finserv, rising over 4%, was the top Sensex gainer followed by L&T, HDFC, Axis Bank, SBI, Reliance Industries and IndusInd Bank. Dr Reddy’s, ITC, Nestle, HUL and Bharti Airtel were the only laggards. Of 30 Sensex stocks, 25 settled in the green. Most sectoral indices on the NSE closed in the green. Nifty Realty, surging over 8%, was the top sectoral gainer. Banks and financials witnessed a sharp rebound with Nifty Bank, Nifty Private Bank and Nifty Financial services closing over 2% each. Nifty IT and Nifty metal gained over 1% each. On the downside, Nifty Media declined 1.7%. In Asia, stock exchanges in Shanghai and Hong Kong closed in the green, while Seoul ended with losses.