Sensex, Nifty end at record highs; Adani Ports, Kotak Bank, HDFC Bank top gainers

The Indian stock market closed at record highs on Wednesday led by a stellar rally in banking stocks. Sensex ended 545 pts higher at 79,986 and Nifty gained 162 pts to 24,286.  Market cap of BSE-listed firms climbed to Rs 445.50 lakh crore. Adani Ports, Kotak Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, SBI, JSW Steel  and PowerGrid were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 2.49 per cent. Of 30 Sensex stocks, 24 ended in green. 

Shares of TCS, Titan, RIL and Tata Motors were the top Sensex losers, falling up to 1.24% in early trade. 

Banking shares were the top sectoral gainers with their BSE index rising 1,036 points.  Capital goods index on BSE ended 712 pts higher at 73,757.

Market breadth was positive with 2355 stocks rising against 1567 stocks falling on BSE. 99 shares were unchanged.

Kunal Shah, Senior Technical & Derivative Analyst at LKP Securities said, "The Bank Nifty index witnessed a strong momentum and surpassed the hurdle of 53,000 on a closing basis. The index is trading in a strong uptrend with higher high and higher low formations on the daily chart. The immediate support now stands at 52,500, and a dip towards this support would be an ideal opportunity to initiate fresh long positions."

Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services said, "A broad-based rally was witnessed in the Indian market, boosted by large caps, with financials taking centre stage. With the drop in Indian banks' GNPAs to a 12-year low, the sector is anticipated to outperform in the near term. On the global front, the US FED chair's commentary on inflation cooling down to 2% by the end of CY25 was sentimentally positive. FOMC minutes later today might give hints on the start of the rate-cut cycle."

Previous session 

Nifty fell 18.10 points or 0.07% to end at 24,123.85, while Sensex ended 34.73 points or 0.04% lower at 79,441.46 on Tuesday.