Sensex, Nifty touch fresh peaks on firm global cues

Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty reached their fresh record highs on Monday, amid optimism in global markets and foreign fund inflows. Buying in index major Reliance Industries also fuelled the rally in equities.

The NSE Nifty climbed 152.60 points or 0.68 per cent to 22,666.30. During the day, it jumped 183.6 points or 0.81 per cent to hit a lifetime high of 22,697.30.

“Global equities posted mostly modest moves as investors prepared for a busy week that includes US inflation data, and European Central Bank interest rate decision,” said Deepak Jasani, head of retail research, HDFC Securities.

In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge climbed 0.26 per cent while smallcap index dipped 0.06 per cent.

Auto index climbed 1.65 per cent, oil & gas jumped 1.51 per cent, energy (1.24 per cent), consumer discretionary (1.14 per cent), realty (1.21 per cent), metal (1.10 per cent) and utilities (0.90 per cent).

Services, teck and IT were the laggards.

A total of 266 stocks hit their 52-week high while 12 hit their 52-week low on the BSE.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong settled in the positive territory while Shanghai ended lower.

European markets were trading in the positive zone. Wall Street ended with gains on Friday. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 1,659.27 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.81 per cent to $90.43 a barrel. “The buoyancy in sentiment continued, led by sectoral tailwinds and Q4 earnings growth expectations. The up-move was largely broadbased, with outperformance by auto, reality, oil & gas, and consumer discretionary, while IT was tepid owing to insipid Q4 growth expectations due to a slowdown in spending,” said Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Financial Services.