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Sensex at new closing high; Nifty at 6,300
It is Diwali already on D-Street as the buying frenzy on Thursday saw the benchmark indices climb to another record closing high and the markets registering Rs 5-lakh crore (Rs 5-trillion) turnover for the first time ever.
The S&P BSE Sensex ended at an all-time closing high at 21,165 and the Nifty edged higher to its highest level closing since November 2010 at 6,299.
Earlier in the day, markets traded in a tight range and marginally slipped into the red in noon deals as selling in heavyweights like ONGC, HDFC Bank and ITC weighed on the indices.
However, in the last hour of the trade, key indices staged a sharp recovery as traders rolled over positions into the November series.
The Sensex touched a high of 21,205 and the Nifty scaled the levels of 6,309 in intra-day trades. The scrips that aided the resurgence included SBI, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank and Reliance Industries.
In the broader markets, the midcap index surged 1.4% and the smallcap index gained 0.5%.
Rupee
Even as the markets cheered, the Indian currency rupee weakened today due to dollar demand from importers on the last day of the month.
At 1600 hrs, the rupee was trading at Rs 61.39 compared with previous close of Rs 61.24 per dollar.
Global Markets
Asian markets suffered a glancing blow on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve's latest policy outlook was deemed less dovish than some had wagered on, lifting both bond yields and the dollar.
The damage was mostly superficial with MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan off just 0.6 per cent. Shares in Shanghai lost 0.6 per cent, while Australian markets held steady.
In Asia, sentiment was helped by the Bank of Japan's decision to stick with its massive stimulus program that has shown tentative signs of breaking the grip of deflation.
European stocks pulled back from five-year highs with all the major indices trading in the red. CAC, DAX were down 0.2-0.5% while CAC after initial weakness recovered and was marginally in the green, up 0.1%.
Sectors and Stocks
Barring Health Care index which was down 1.3%, all the other indices closed in the green with gains of atleast 0.1%.
Consumer Durables, PSU and Bankex indices advanced 2-3% followed by Metal, Oil & Gas and Power indices gained 1-2%.
Capital Goods, Realty, Teck, IT and FMCG indices added 0.1-0.7%.
Among the Sensex-30, SBI up 4% was the top Sensex gainer followed by Tata Steel, Gail India, Tata Power and ICICI Bank up 2% each.
Coal India, Sesa Sterlite, Reliance Industries, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, Hindalco, BHEL, NTPC and TCS which added 1-2% were the other prominent gainers in today's trade.
Meanwhile, pharma scrips like Dr Reddys Lab, Sun Pharma, Cipla closed in the red, down 1-3%.
Auto names like Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Auto and Maruti Suzuki has a weak session and ended lower by 0.3-1%.
Hindustan Unilever down 0.7% and Infosys losing 0.5% rounded off the losers list.
The market breadth was negative. 1,319 stocks declined while 1,161 stocks advanced on the BSE.
