Record high on D-Street! Sensex jumps 200 points, Nifty above 18,900

Following gains on Wall Street, Indian equity indices opened higher on Wednesday, with the benchmark Nifty50 hitting an all-time high of 18,908 while Sensex rose to a new peak of 63,716.

As of 9.20 am, the Nifty50 index was trading 56 points or 0.30% to 18,874, while S&P BSE Sensex added 193 points or 0.30% to 63,609.

From the Sensex pack, Tata Motors, SBI, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Infosys, Titan, and ITC opened with gains, while Power Grid, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, Tech Mahindra, NPTC and HCL Tech opened in the red.

Shares of Titagarsh Rail Systems opened 5% higher as the company got the letter of acceptance from Gujarat Metro Rail Corporation for an order worth Rs 857 crore.

On the sectoral front, Nifty Metal surged 0.99%, and Nifty PSU Bank rose 0.60%. Financial, auto, FMCG, IT, media, realty, consumer durables and oil & gas sectors also opened with gains. While Nifty Midcap100 gained 0.41%, and Nifty Smallcap100 advanced 0.68%.

Experts View
"There is renewed vigour in the market. However, high market valuation continues to be a concern for the near term. Investors can book some profits at record highs," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.

Anand James, Chief Market Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said, Nifty look to enter longs on dips to 18,786 with eyes on 19,000 as the immediate objective, though there is a fair chance of 18,887 to attempt a pause, yet again. Alternatively, slippage past 18,767 would render the trend sideways, with remote chances of a collapse."

Global Markets
US stock indexes rebounded on Tuesday from a recent losing streak as upbeat economic data soothed investor worries about an imminent recession triggered by the Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hikes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.63%, the S&P 500 gained 1.15%, and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.65%.

Asian shares hesitated on Wednesday as surprisingly upbeat US economic news warred with global growth concerns. Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 1.66%, while China's Shanghai Composite declined 0.52%.

FII Tracker
On Tuesday, foreign institutional investors bought a net Rs 2,024 crore worth of Indian equities, while domestic investors sold Rs 1,991 crore of shares, as per provisional NSE data.

Oil Prices Rise
Oil prices edged higher on Wednesday as markets worried about supply tightness in the US, the world's biggest oil consumer, after data showed a larger-than-expected draw in its crude and gasoline inventories.

Brent crude futures rose 32 cents, or 0.4%, to $72.58 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures gained 23 cents, or 0.3%, to $67.94 a barrel. Both contracts had fallen about 2.5% in the previous session on signals that central banks may not be done with interest rate hikes.

Rupee Strengthens
The Indian rupee surged 5 paise to $81.97 against the US dollar in early trade. While, the dollar index, which tracks the movement of the greenback against a basket of six major world currencies, rose 0.07% to 102.56 level.

(With inputs from agencies)