Bourses scale fresh highs on sharp gains in IT stocks

Mumbai: 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 amid hopes of a rate cut by the US Federal Reserve.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 622 points or 0.78 per cent to settle at a record closing level 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.

On a weekly basis, the BSE benchmark jumped 522.74 points or 0.65 per cent, while the Nifty climbed 178.3 points or 0.73 per cent.

Thanks to the optimism in equities, the market capitalisation (mcap) of BSE-listed firms hit a record peak of Rs 4,52,38,553.68 crore ($5.42 trillion).

Investors’ wealth also climbed Rs 1.17 lakh crore.

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 the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge declined 0.22 per cent, while the smallcap index dipped 0.13 per cent.

Among the indices, IT surged 4.32 per cent, tech zoomed 3.29 per cent, energy (0.13 per cent), bankex (0.10 per cent) and services (0.06 per cent).

In contrast, realty, power, metal, utilities, auto, industrials and consumer discretionary were among the

laggards.