Benchmarks defied gravity for the fourth straight session today, riding on a rally in RIL which became the first Indian company to reach a market capitalisation of ₹8 lakh crore.
The BSE Sensex jumped 51 points to a fresh closing peak of 38,336.76, while the broader NSE Nifty rose 11.85 points to record 11,582.75.
Persistent buying by both foreign and domestic investors offset concerns related to the rupee and global trade, brokers said.
The rupee once again breached the 70-mark against the US dollar amid robust demand for the greenback.
On the global front, the US slapped tariffs on another USD 16 billion of Chinese imports, which Beijing vowed to retaliate.
Construction major L&T was the biggest gainer among the Sensex components, spurting 2.30%, after the company said its board has approved a ₹9,000-crore share buyback plan.
Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) became the first Indian company to cross the ₹8 lakh crore market capitalisation mark. RIL shares rose 1.86% to hit a record high of ₹1,269.70.
The 30-share Sensex opened strong and scaled an all-time (intra-day) high of 38,487.63 in early trade.
However, it succumbed to profit booking to slip to 38,227.36, before finally ending at 38,336.76 points, up 51.01 points, or 0.13%.
It bettered its previous record closing of 38,285.75 reached on August 21.
The gauge has now gained 673.20 points in four sessions. The stock market was shut on Wednesday on account of Id.
The broader NSE Nifty also rose 11.85 points or 0.10% to finish at 11,582.75 – surpassing its previous record closing of 11,570.90 hit on August 21.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net of ₹254.25 crore and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹197.87 crore on Tuesday, provisional data showed.
“This was the 25th time this year calendar year that the Nifty has hit a new high. The market’s resilience was commendable coming after a near 5% rise in crude oil over the last two days coupled with a depreciation of the rupee.
“Pharma sector continued to do well for the second day running while the IT stocks also edged up. Bank Nifty closed lower in the weekly expiry,” said V.K. Sharma, Head Private Client Group and Capital Market Strategy at HDFC Securities.
Other prominent Sensex gainers were Adani Ports 1.68%, PowerGrid 1.47%, Maruti Suzuki 1.43%, ONGC 1.18%, HUL 1.18%, TCS 1.08%, Infosys 1.08%, Sun Pharma 0.61%, M&M 0.43%, Bharti Airtel 0.41% and Wipro 0.35%.
In contrast, Tata Motors slumped 4.33% followed by Vedanta 2.01%, Tata Steel 1.85%, Bajaj Auto 1.52%, SBI 1.52%, Kotak Bank 1.21%, IndusInd Bank 0.90% and Coal India 0.89%, among others.
On the sectoral front, the BSE IT index jumped 1.16%, followed by FMCG 1.12%, capital goods 1.01%, teck 0.91%, energy 0.88%, healthcare 0.81%, power 0.66%, infrastructure 0.42%, realty 0.37% and oil and gas 0.01%.
While metal fell 1.54%, bankex 0.83%, PSU 0.53%, consumer durbales 0.11% and auto 0.11%.
The broader markets too displayed a mixed trend, with the mid-cap index rising 0.20% while the small-cap gauge shed 0.14%.
Globally, Asian shares ended mixed amid fresh escalation in the Sino-US trade dispute.
Shanghai Composite index rose 0.37% and Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.22%. However, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.49%.
In Europe, Paris CAC 40 rose 0.11% and Frankfurt DAX inched up 0.02% in early deals. London’s FTSE rose 0.01%.
However, US stocks closed mostly lower on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 and the Dow snapping a four-day winning streak, as the minutes from the latest Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting reaffirmed the central bank’s hawkish bias.