Markets @ record high on buying in IT stocks

Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty soared nearly 1 per cent to hit new lifetime highs on Friday, fuelled by intense buying in IT and tech stocks after robust TCS earnings.

A rally in Reliance Industries and Infosys also boosted investor sentiments, traders said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 622 points or 0.78 per cent to settle at a new closing high of 80,519.34.

During the day, it zoomed 996.17 points or 1.24 per cent to hit an all-time high of 80,893.51.

The NSE Nifty surged 186.20 points or 0.77 per cent to settle at a record closing high of 24,502.15.

Intra-day, it jumped 276.25 points or 1.13 per cent to hit a new lifetime peak of 24,592.20.

Among the Sensex pack, Tata Consultancy Services climbed nearly 7 per cent after the country's largest IT services player reported 8.7 per cent growth for the June quarter net profit at Rs 12,040 crore.

Infosys, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, Axis Bank, Reliance Industries, JSW Steel, Bajaj Finance and Larsen & Toubro were the other major gainers.

Maruti, Asian Paints, Titan, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bharti Airtel and ICICI Bank were among the laggards.

In Asian markets, Shanghai and Hong Kong settled higher, while Seoul and Tokyo ended lower.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.78 per cent to $86.13 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 1,137.01 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.