Banking stocks on Thursday pushed Sensex and Nifty to their all-time highs, rising on hopes RBI would cut rates in August 2 policy meet on the back of June retail inflation falling to a five-year low on drop in food prices.
Buoyed by the global rally, the Sensex crossed the 32,000-mark in early trade, stayed above the key level for the remaining day and closed 232 points or 0.73 percent higher at 32,037 level.
The Nifty too rose 0.77 percent or 75.60 points at 9,891 level.
Banking stocks led the gains with the BSE Bankex rising 244 points to 27,046 level.
Of the 10 index components, nine closed in green with private sector lender YES Bank rising 3.75 percent, the most, followed by ICICI Bank gaining 1.86 percent. Only Bank of Baroda (0.24 percent) closed lower .
Bank Nifty too rose during the day's trade and closed 193.20 points or 0.82 percent higher at 23,888 level.
Of the 12 index components, nine closed higher with YES Bank (4.39 percent) and ICICI Bank 1.90 percent leading the gains.
IDFC Bank (1.72 percent), Bank Of Baroda (0.06 percent)and PNB (0.07 percent) ended in the red.
Retail inflation hit a "historically low" level of 1.54 per cent in June on dip in food items such as vegetables, pulses and milk products.
"The number of 1.54 per cent is historically low and reflects the firm and ongoing consolidation of macro economic stability," Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian said.
"The last time we saw such inflation -- according to slightly different CPI (IW) -- was in 1999 and before that in August 1978," he added.
BT Online Last Updated: July 13, 2017 | 16:09 IST 
