Market closes at fresh record highs led by gains in banking and IT stocks

Photo: ANI


The benchmark indices closed at fresh record highs on Tuesday led by gains in banking and IT stocks coming a day after RBI data showed the current account surplus stood at USD 5.7 billion.

Sensex opened at a record high of 77,543.22 and closed at 77,337.59, up 36.45 points, or 0.05 per cent.

The index created a fresh all-time high of 77,851.63, as investors piled onto banking stocks but also touched a low of 76,954.87.

Nifty 50 opened at a record high of 23,629.85, and touched another record high at 23,664.00. It closed at 23,516, down 41.90 points, or 0.18 per cent.

Among the sectors, Nifty Bank and Nifty Private Bank rose by 1.7 per cent each. Nifty IT saw an increase of 0.8 per cent while the Nifty Realty declined by 1.8 per cent.

Nifty Metal and Nifty Media fell by 0.7 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively. Among banking stocks, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank surged.

On Nifty 50, Titan, Maruti Suzuki India, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto, and BPCL, were the top drags, while Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank, were the top gainers for the day.

The mid-and small-cap segments failed to mirror the trend in the benchmarks. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices ended 0.26 per cent and 0.03 per cent lower, respectively.

Overall market capitalisation (mcap) of BSE-listed firms rose barely to about Rs 435.8 lakh crore from nearly Rs 435.6 lakh crore in the previous session.

ICICI Bank became only the sixth Indian firm to hit a market capitalisation of USD 100 billion (~Rs 8.4 lakh crore) as its share price gained over 2 per cent intraday.

The stock was at Rs 1,196.45 in the afternoon trade, up 2.25 per cent from the previous close. ICICI Bank is the second largest bank in India by market capitalisation, trailing HDFC Bank.

Bandhan Bank shares tumbled 4 per cent in early trade after the RBI appointed an additional director on the Board, ahead of Bandhan Bank chief Chandra Shekhar Ghosh’s retirement on July 9, 2024.

On the global front, the stock futures pointed to modest gains in Europe after chipmakers drove a rally in Asia and yet another record-breaking session in the US.

Futures contracts for the Euro Stoxx 50 climbed 0.2 per cent as the MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 1 per cent, lifted by the tech-heavy markets of South Korea and Taiwan. S&P 500 futures were little changed.