Sensex, Nifty Maintain Record Breaking Spree, Close Above 38,000

India’s S&P BSE Sensex traded above 38,000 for the first time, and extended the spree on closing.

Up by 117.47 points, India's S&P BSE Sensex traded above 38,000 for the first time on the morning of 9 August led by ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries and Infosys. The Indian equity benchmarks extended their record-breaking spree with S&P BSE Sensex closing above 38,000 for first time. Today’s up move was fuelled by a rally in banking shares.

The S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.36 percent or 137 points to 38,024 and the NSE Nifty 50 index climbed 0.2 percent or 21 points to record closing high of 11,471, Bloomberg Quint reported.

Liquidity, good earnings and foreign flows turning positive are driving Indian markets to new highs, Sanjiv Bhasin, EVP-markets & corporate affairs at IIFL, told BloombergQuint over the phone.

There is upside still left in mid- and small-cap stocks and there has been an early Diwali with this rally.

Sanjiv Bhasin, EVP-markets & corporate affairs, IIFL

Last year, broader markets outperformed and this time large caps are outperforming as local and global flows are chasing heavyweights, he said. Forget about discounts, stocks like Reliance Industries Ltd., Hindustan Unilever Ltd., ITC Ltd. and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. will command a premium from hereon, Bhasin said. “Market breadth will be narrow but that is typical of a bull market.”

Bhasin prefers consumption, auto, public-sector banking and NBFC stocks.

In today's session, seven out of 11 sector gauges compiled by National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty PSU Bank index's 3 percent surge. On the flipside, the Nifty Pharma index was top loser, down 0.6 percent.

Mid- and small-cap shares outperformed their larger peers as the Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.5 percent and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.9 percent.

Opening Trends

The pre-opening trends also indicated a good start for Nifty as all sector gauges compiled by National Stock Exchange were trading higher with the Nifty Bank index surging to an all-time high of 28,216. The S&P BSE Sensex rose as much as 0.4 percent or 163 points to 38,050 and the NSE Nifty 50 index climbed 0.4 percent or 45 points to record high of 11,495.

All sector gauges compiled by National Stock Exchange were trading higher with the Nifty Bank index surging to an all-time high of 28,216.

The mid- and small-cap shares were in line with their larger peers as the S&P BSE MidCap and S&P BSE SmallCap indexes rose 0.5 percent each.