Benchmarks indices rose by nearly a per cent on Friday, each hitting fresh all-time highs in intraday trade amid gains by select IT and banking heavyweights.
Nifty 50 settled at a fresh closing high of 24,502.15, having jumped 186 points, or 0.77%. Sensex settled at its fresh closing high of 80,519.34 with a gain of 622 points, or 0.78%. Nifty 50 hit a fresh all-time high of 24,592.20, while the Sensex reached 80,893.51 during the session.
Among sectors, the IT index surged 4.5%, and the Media index added over 2%. The Realty index shed 1.5%, the Power index was down nearly 1%, and the Capital goods and Auto indices were down 0.5% each.
On BSE, Axis Bank, Federal Bank, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Persistent Systems, ONGC, and Zomato, hit their fresh 52-week highs in intraday trade.
The mid and smallcap segments of the market saw some selling, as the BSE Midcap index ended 0.22% lower while the Smallcap index declined 0.13%.
The overall market capitalisation of the firms listed on the BSE rose to nearly ₹452.4 lakh crore from nearly ₹451.2 lakh crore in the previous session.
Shares of the Power Finance Corporation (PFC) gained over 1.5%, a day after the government appointed Sandeep Kumar as Director (Finance) of the company.
ABB India shares fell almost three per cent in trade after international brokerage UBS downgraded the counter to ‘neutral’, seeing limited room for a re-rating.
UBS slashed its rating on ABB India from ‘buy’ to ‘neutral’, but it also hiked its target price to Rs 9,100 per share from Rs 8,830 apiece.
Several IT stocks saw healthy gains such as TCS (6.59%), Wipro (4.66%), HCL Tech (3.30%), Infosys (3.25%), Tech Mahindra (3.04%), and LTIMindtree (2.93%).
Market experts predict the market will continue to react to quarterly earnings in the near term. However, the upcoming Budget and chatter around it will be the major triggers for the market.
The US consumer price index (CPI) dropped 0.1% month-on-month in June against the expectations of a 0.1% rise. Year-on-year, the CPI rose 3% compared to 3.3% in May.
On the global landscape, the European stock markets extended recent gains but Tokyo tanked with focus firmly on central bank activity.
Traders increasingly expect the US Federal Reserve to cut interest rates in September as inflation retreats.
At the same time, speculation abounds that the Bank of Japan has intervened in foreign exchange markets to boost the yen.