New Delhi: The market extended Wednesday's gains in the opening with the Sensex and the Nifty scaling record highs. The Sensex crossed the 37,000 mark for the first time on Thursday touching 37014.65, while the Nifty crossed its earlier high of 11,171.55 achieved on January 29, 2018.
This is the 20th time the Sensex has hit record high this year. The BSE index is up 8 percent year-to-date, while it was up 21 percent in the same period last year.
The Nifty has hit record high for the 14th time this year and has taken 123 trading sessions to be back at this level. The gauge is up by 6 percent year-to-date. The broader NSE index was up 22 percent in the same period last year.
The benchmark indexes have been helped by sustained buying in midcaps led by bank and capital goods stocks. Among index gainers, shares of SBI, ITC, Bharti Airtel, L&T, Tata Motors surged. While SBI topped the Sensex pack, UltraTech Cement led on the Nifty.
Among index losers were stocks of Vedanta, Adani Ports, Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, ONGC, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Infratel, oil marketing companies.
The fall in IT and OMC stocks is driven by the rupee opening stronger at 68.71 against the US dollar on Thursday. The rupee had closed at 68.78 a dollar on Wednesday.
Among sectoral indices on the BSE, capital goods, realty, industrials, finance, bankex, FMCG, energy, basic materials traded positive, rising by up to 0.8 percent. On the NSE, PSU bank, realty, FMCG gained by up to 1.46 percent.
Asian markets traded under pressure with Japan's Nikkei down by 0.10 percent, while Hang Seng has lost over 130 points. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.2 percent. Australian shares fell 0.4 percent.
On Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.68 percent to 25,414.1, the S&P 500 gained 0.91 percent to 2,846.07 and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.17 percent to 7,932.24.
Shares of state-run banks traded higher after better-than-expected first-quarter results from Canara Bank. Canara Bank shares rose 5 percent to Rs 270.80 after the bank reported 12 percent increase in its net profit to Rs 281 crore against Rs 252 crore a year ago. State Bank of India rose 1.9 percent, Bank of Baroda 1.7 percent, Indian Bank 1.4 percent, UCo Bank 1.4 percent, Bank of India 1.3 percent, Indian Overseas Bank 1.3 percent, Central Bank of India 1.2 percent.
Larsen & Toubro Ltd rose 1.4 percent to Rs 1,339 after the company posted a 36 percent rise in Q1 profit, beating street estimates, helped by strong performance in its infrastructure business. Net profit rose to Rs 1,215 crore ($176.80 million) in the quarter ended 30 June from Rs 893 crore a year earlier, the company said in a statement.
The rupee on Thursday strengthened marginally against US dollar tracking gains in local equities and Asian currencies. At 9.15 am, the rupee was trading at 68.70 a dollar, up 0.12 percent from its previous close of 68.79. The currency opened at 68.70 a dollar. The 10-year bond yield stood at 7.786 percent, from its Wednesday’s close of 7.787 percent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions. So far this year, the rupee has weakened 7 percent, while foreign investors have sold $919.10 million and $6.07 billion in equity and debt markets, respectively.
It will be a results-heavy day. CESC Ltd, Colgate Palmolive (India) Ltd, Container Corp of India Ltd, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd, ITC Ltd, SBI Life Insurance Co Ltd and Yes Bank Ltd are some of the companies that will release their earnings for the June quarter on Thursday.
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