Sensex extends record run, zooms 803 points; Nifty settles at fresh closing high of 19,189; Nippon Life, HDFC AMC & UTI AMC jump up to 15%

Indian equity benchmarks continued their record run on Friday to settle at fresh record closing highs. The surge was supported by gains in technology, automobile, banks, financials and pharma stocks. The 30-share BSE Sensex pack surged 803 points or 1.26 per cent to close at 64,719, while the broader NSE Nifty index moved 217 points or 1.14 per cent to end the session at 19,189. Mid and smallcap shares also finished on a positive note, with the Nifty Midcap 100 up 0.66 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 rising 0.42 per cent. Fear index, India VIX, fell 0.80 per cent to 10.80.

On the global front, Asian markets traded on a mixed today. Wall Street equities closed higher overnight as sentiment improved on strong US economic data.

Back home, buying interest in select index heavyweights such as Infosys, HDFC twins (HDFC and HDFC Bank), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Reliance Industries (RIL) also lifted the indices higher.

"The lack of global support had restrained the Indian indices from pursuing their record highs earlier, despite the presence of a resilient domestic macroeconomic background. With positive surprises assisting buoyancy in the global market and the advance of the southwest monsoon, the domestic market succeeded in marching to new highs with renewed strength. Global investor sentiments were uplifted by a favourable revision in Q1 GDP, a fall in jobless claims, and the positive outcome of the Fed's US bank stress test," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

14 out of the 15 sectoral indices on NSE settled in the green. Nifty IT, Nifty Auto, Nifty Bank, Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Pharma outperformed the index by rising 2.50 per cent, 2.07 per cent, 0.95 per cent, 0.84 per cent and 1.06 per cent, respectively. Although, Nifty Metal shed 0.03 per cent.

On the stock-specific front, M&M emerged as the top Nifty gainer as the stock jumped 4.37 per cent to close at Rs 1,456. Infosys, IndusInd Bank, Sun Pharma and Hero MotoCorp gained up to 3.44 per cent.

Also, Nippon Life India Asset Management, HDFC AMC and UTI AMC surged up to 14.84 per cent. AMCs rose sharply today due to the outcome of recent Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) board meeting, in which the proposed reduction in expense ratio was deferred, an analyst said.

"The surge can be attributed to the recent Sebi board meeting where the suggested reduction in expense ratio was postponed. As a result, there is a growing interest in purchasing AMC stocks, as the market anticipates that the profitability of these asset management companies will likely stay steady in the near future," said Ravi Singh, Vice-President and Head of Research at Share India.

In contrast, Adani Ports, Grasim Industries, Apollo Hospitals, HDFC Life and Adani Enterprises were among top Nifty laggards. Further, MCX, Adani Transmission, CreditAccess Grameen, Hatsun Agro, PNB Housing Finance and Alok Industries cracked up to 8.65 per cent.

Out of a total of 3,648 stocks that traded during the day on BSE, 1,952 settled with gains while 1,557 others ended lower. The rest 139 stocks stayed unchanged.

Also read: Market extends record run as Sensex tops 64,550; Nifty breaches 19,150: Investor wealth jumps over Rs 3.91L cr in 2 days; Nippon Life jumps 20%

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