Market opens at record high; Sensex rallies over 650 points

ICICI Bank was the top gainer, surging around 3 per cent, followed by Infosys, HCL Tech, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel and Bajaj Finance.

Mumbai: Rallying over 650 points, equity benchmark Sensex hit its record intra-day level in early trade on Monday, driven by broad-based gains amid massive foreign fund inflow and positive cues from global markets.

After touching its lifetime peak of 42,566.34 in the opening session, the 30-share BSE index was trading 627.21 points or 1.50 per cent higher at 42,520.27.

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty too claimed a fresh high of 12,451.80. Later, it was trading with 178 points or 1.45 per cent gain at 12,441.55.

All Sensex components were trading in the positive territory. ICICI Bank was the top gainer, surging around 3 per cent, followed by Infosys, HCL Tech, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel and Bajaj Finance.

In the previous session, Sensex ended 552.90 points or 1.34 per cent higher at 41,893.06, and the broader NSE Nifty surged 143.25 points or 1.18 per cent to 12,263.55.

Foreign institutional investors remained net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 4,869.87 crore on Friday, according to provisional exchange data.

“Trade set up in the domestic market looks to be strong on favourable global cues,” said Arjun Yash Mahajan Head Institutional Business at Reliance Securities.

Financials have mainly supported the domestic market rally in last week mainly led by strong 2Q numbers, steady asset qualities and improving collection efficiencies, he added.

Wall Street notched its best weekly performance last week since April as key indices in the US registered weekly gains of 7-9 per cent, he said.

Democrat Joe Biden has defeated incumbent US President Donald Trump in the bitterly-fought presidential election.

Most market participants are hoping the Biden regime would spell good news for Indian companies, especially IT, and domestic financial markets.

Coming back to domestic factors, investors will also focus on industrial production and inflation data, scheduled to be announced on Thursday.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo were trading up to 2.41 per cent higher in mid-session deals.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 2.66 per cent higher at USD 40.50 per barrel.