Sensex breaks 50000 barrier

„Nifty-50 inching towards 15K milestone

The Sensex finally closed above 50000 for the first time, as the post Budget rally continued for the third consecutive session, with banks leading the gainers.

The index shot up to a new all-time high of

50526.39 before closing at

50255, gaining over 458 points, or 0.92 per cent.

The Nifty-50 Index too clocked a new all-time high of 14868.85 and finally closed at 14789.95, up

142.10 points, or 0.97 per cent.

The broader market outperformed the benchmarks. The BSE Mid-cap Index gained 1.38 per cent while the BSE Small-cap Index gained 1.47 per cent.

The all-round rally helped BSE's market capitalisation touch a new alltime high of over Rs 198.43 lakh crore.

The 15000 milestone for the Nifty-50 looks possible with the Budget announcement adding to the upward market momentum right now, said analysts.

"We can expect some resistance to set in he

Nifty-50 at around 15,000 level.The budget is fueling a rally in all economydriven sectors, along with banking. The uptick in global markets, resumption of FII flows and strong earnings trend coming from Q3 results are other factors that are taking markets higher," said Jaideep Hansraj, MD & CEO, Kotak Securities.

"In the last three sessions, almost all sectors have participated with many stocks showing eye popping moves. While the banking space already has rallied sharply in the last couple of sessions, other sectors such as Pharma and the PSE’s were seen buzzing on Wednesday. The Nifty continues to clock new records and is now not far from creating a new history of 15000 mark," said Ruchit Jain, senior analyst-technical and derivatives, Angel Broking.

Expectations from third quarter results of telecom major Bharti Airtel also buoyed market sentiments as the stock touched a new

52-week high of Rs 622.40 on the BSE..

"Bharti Airtel posted the highest ever consolidated quarterly revenues of Rs

26,518 crore—up 24.2 per cent year on year.. Overall, numbers were above street expectation in all the fronts," said Keshav Lahoti, analyst, Angel Broking.

Foreign portfolio investors were net buyers of equities worth Rs

2,520.92 crore, who returned to the buying side post-Budget topping the more than Rs 6,000crore buying on Tuesday.