The key Indian equity indices continued their bull on Wednesday with the BSE Sensex hitting the landmark 56,000 level. It has touched a new high of 56,086.50 points and the Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange has recorded an all-time high of 16,693 points.
Around 10.05 a.m., Sensex was trading at 56,036.78, higher by 244.51 points or 0.44 per cent from its previous close of 55,792.27. It opened at 56,073.31 and has so far touched an intraday low of 55,961.73 points.
The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange was at 16,687.45, higher by 72.85 points or 0.44 per cent from its previous close.
The top gainers on the Sensex were UltraTech Cement, HDFC Bank, and Bajaj Finance, while the only losers were ICICI Bank, Titan Company, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and ITC.
HDFC Bank jumped 3.07% after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed the lender to issue new credit cards, months after it curbed some operations of the bank due to outages in its digital payment services. The RBI’s ban on the bank introducing new digital initiatives will continue.
The Nifty Bank index was up 0.99%.
Sugar stocks fell in early trade after a Reuters report that the country is expected to withdraw its sugar export subsidies from the new season beginning October. Shares of Balrampur Chini, Dwarikesh Sugars, and Shree Renuka Sugars were down between 1.3% and 3%.
In the broader markets, both, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices were up 0.5 per cent and 0.3 per cent, respectively.
Among broader markets, Asian shares held near year-to-date lows as overnight declines on Wall Street reinforced worries about the economic impact of the Delta coronavirus variant.