Sensex, Nifty hit record highs as Maruti surges

MUMBAI: Indian shares closed at record highs on Thursday as top automaker Maruti Suzuki hit its highest in nearly two years, even as sharp losses in HDFC Bank following central bank curbs on some of its businesses capped further gains.

The NSE Nity 50 index ended 20.15 points or 0.15% higher at 13,133.90, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was up 14.61 points or 0.03% at 44,632.65, with sentiment supported by COVID-19 vaccine developments globally and a slowing pace of virus spread at home.

Both indexes have hit record highs in 10 of their last 17 sessions, gaining more than 11% in November on record inflows from foreign institutional investors.

On Thursday, Maruti Suzuki India clocked its best performance since April 9 with a gain of 7.4%. The carmaker reported slightly higher year-on-year sales for November earlier in the week.

Maruti Chairman R.C. Bhargava told on Wednesday the company expected retail sales in December to be “prety good”. The stock has gained for four straight sessions.

Capping gains, top private-sector lender HDFC Bank closed down 2.1% ater gaining as much as 1.8% earlier in the session.

The Reserve Bank of India halted the lender from sourcing new credit card customers and launching digital businesses due to outages in bank’s internet banking, mobile banking, payment utilities over the past two years, it said in a regulatory filing.

Market heavyweight and HDFC Bank’s top shareholder, HDFC, slid 1%.