Markets at record highs; Sensex ends up 1,245 points

Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty rallied more than one-and-a-half per cent to hit their lifetime highs on Friday helped by impressive GDP data and fresh foreign fund inflows.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 1,245.05 points or 1.72 per cent to reach 73,745.35 -- its all-time closing peak.

During the day, it zoomed 1,318.91 points or 1.81 per cent to hit a record intra-day high of 73,819.21.

The Nifty climbed 355.95 points or 1.62 per cent to settle at a new closing high of 22,338.75.

During the day, it soared 370.5 points or 1.68 per cent to reach its intra-day record peak of 22,353.30..

A rally in global markets added to the positive momentum in the equity markets, analysts said.

Among the Sensex firms, Tata Steel jumped over 6 per cent while JSW Steel climbed more than 4 per cent.

Larsen & Toubro, Titan, Maruti, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank and Tata Motors were the other major gainers.

HCL Technologies, Infosys and Tech Mahindra were the laggards.

India's economy grew by better-than-expected 8.4 per cent in the final three months of 2023 -- the fastest pace in one-and-half years.

The growth rate in October-December was higher than 7.6 per cent in the previous three years, and it helped take the estimate for the current fiscal (April 2023 to March 2024) to 7.6 per cent, according to the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Thursday.

India's manufacturing sector growth climbed to a five-month high in February amid a sharper uptick in factory production and sales, supported by both domestic and external demand, a monthly survey said on Friday.

The seasonally adjusted HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose from 56.5 in January to 56.9 in February, pointing to the strongest improvement in the health of the sector since September 2023.

In Asian markets, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong settled with gains.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) turned buyers on Thursday as they bought equities worth Rs 3,568.11 crore, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.82 per cent to $82.58 a barrel.

Leading stock exchanges BSE and NSE will conduct a special trading session in the equity and equity derivative segments on Saturday to check their preparedness to handle major disruption or failure at the primary site.

The special live trading session will have intra-day switch over from Primary Site (PR) to Disaster Recovery (DR) site.

The exchanges said there will be two sessions -- the first from 9:15 am to 10 am on the PR, and the second from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm on the DR site.

"Trading members are requested to note that the exchange will conduct a special live trading session with intraday switch over from Primary Site (PR) to Disaster Recovery Site (DR) on Saturday, March 2, in equity and equity derivatives segments," BSE and NSE said in separate circulars.