Sensex, Nifty rise to records as IMF pats India on economy

The broader NSE Nifty too ended at a fresh life-time high of 10,230.85 points, showing gains of 63.40 points, or 0.62 per cent, in its record setting spree for the second session. Market sentiment was buoyant in a truncated trading week ahead of Diwali and encouraging Q2 earnings from oil-to- telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries.

Sentiments got a lift after the IMF chief Christine Lagarde on Saturday said the Indian economy is on a "very solid track" in the mid-term, triggering all-round buying activity, brokers said. The broader NSE Nifty zoomed past the 10,200-mark for the first time to hit an all-time high of 10,242.95. It however failed to maintain record levels on profit-booking, and settled at new high of 10,230.85, up 63.40 points, or 0.62 per cent.

It broke its previous record closing of 10,167.45, hit on October 13. The BSE Sensex after scaling an all-time high of 32,687.32 points at the outset, finally ended 200.95 points to end at a new peak of 32,633.64, breaching its previous record of 32,575.17 hit on August 1 and also broke its intra-day record of 32,686.48 hit on August 2.

Mumbai: The rupee continued its stellar rally for the sixth-straight day and ended at more than three- week high of 64.74 a dollar, surging by 19 paise helped by extremely bullish macro indicators.

The overall forex market sentiment got a boost from upbeat export data and narrowing of trade deficit coupled with softening inflation.

Extending its strong upmove, the rupee resumed firmly higher at 64.75 against last weekend close of 64.93 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market due to frantic dollar unwinding by exporters and banks. It later strengthened to hit a fresh intra-day high of 64.69 before winding up the day at 64.74, showing a smart rise of 19 paise, or 0.29 per cent.

The RBI, meanwhile, fixed the reference rate for the dollar at 64.7603 and for the euro at 76.3912. India's economic recovery has been patchy of late, post demonetisation and the newly introduced GST regime, but the recent data seems to be suggesting increased optimism, a forex dealer commented.

The GDP expansion hit a three-year low of 5.7 per cent in the April-June quarter with India losing the fastest-growing economy tag to China for the second straight quarter.

The latest data revealed that India's export soared by 25.67 per cent to $28.61 billion in September on rise in shipments of chemicals, petroleum and engineering products.