Market hits record high; Sensex rallies 184 pts, Nifty tops 10,550

Continuing its winning run for a second straight day, the equity market ended on a fresh lifetime high boosted by positive global cues and decent gains in index heavyweights, HDFC, Yes Bank and Bharti Airtel.

The BSE Sensex ended 184 points higher at 34,153.85, while the Nifty50 closed at 10,558.85, thanks to cheer in global markets on robust economic data from across the world as well as US private employers data that showed higher-than-expected 250,000 jobs added in December.

“Markets gained over half a percent and settled at new record high, mainly in reaction to the firm local cues. Banking is playing key role in the recent up move and should hold this bias ahead as well. We still prefer private banks over the PSU pack and suggest accumulating them on dips. Besides, we feel select counters from auto, financials and FMCG space are set for a fresh run,” said Jayant Manglik, President, Religare Broking.

Rally in midcap stocks such as IDFC Bank (up 7.07 per cent), UBL (up 6.98 per cent), Indian Hotels (up 6.90 per cent), Adani Enterprises (up 5.02 per cent), Adani Power (up 4.98 per cent) and RBL Bank (up 4.22 per cent) also boosted sentiment.

BSE Midcap index added 124 points at 18,070 while the Smallcap index closed as many as 189.28 points or 0.97 per cent higher at 19,704.92. Top smallcap gainers of the day were Indo Solar, GM Breweries, Subros, Symphony, Pokarna and VIP clothing gaining over 12 per cent each.

On the NSE, Yes Bank (up 4.98 per cent), Bajaj Finance (up 3.65 per cent), Adani Ports (up 3.37 per cent), Indusind Bank (up 3.24 per cent) and Bharti Airtel (up 3.23 per cent) emerged as the top gainers.

Nifty Media (up 1.45 per cent) was the top sectoral gainer while PSU Bank index was the lone sectoral loser, shedding 0.69 per cent at 3,694.70.

Shares of Idea Cellular surged 10.24 per cent to Rs 115.20 after brokerage firm CLSA upgraded the shares of the company to 'buy' from 'sell' and raised target price on it to Rs 130 from Rs 77.

In other news, BSE is all set to launch later this year a commodities derivatives segment that will include products tied to underlying physical assets such as gold, crude oil, and natural gas.

Globally, China's bluechip CSI300 index was up 0.25 per cent while the Shanghai Composite index was up 6.65 points or 0.2 per cent at 3,392.36, a six-week high.

The Dow industrials broke above the 25,000 level for the first time on Thursday and other major indexes hit closing record highs again, propelled by strong global economic data that extended the New Year's rally for the stock market, Reuters reported.