Mumbai, August 3

The Sensex skyrocketed 873 points to a fresh closing peak while the Nifty finished above the 16,000 mark for the first time on Tuesday as economic recovery hopes triggered across-the-board buying.

Investors grew richer by Rs 2.30 lakh crore, with market capitalisation of all BSE-listed reaching a lifetime high of Rs 2,40,04,664.28 crore. Rising for the second straight session, the 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) benchmark Sensex ended 872.73 points or 1.65% higher at its fresh closing record of 53,823.36. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty rallied 245.60 points or 1.55% to an all-time peak of 16,130.75.

Titan was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, spurting 3.89%, followed by HDFC, Nestle India, IndusInd Bank, UltraTech Cement, Bharti Airtel and State Bank of India. Only three index components finished in the red — Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel and NTPC, shedding up to 0.33%. “Bulls pulled off the 16,000 mark on the Nifty effortlessly buoyed by positive news flow on GST and export data as domestic fund houses poured Rs 280 billion during the first four months of the current fiscal,” said S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities.

The country’s exports grew 47.19% to the “highest ever monthly figure” of USD 35.17 billion in July on account of healthy growth in petroleum, engineering, and gems and jewellery segments, as per official data released post market hours on Monday. — PTI