Sensex soars 1618 pts, Nifty rises 468 pts to life-time highs as RBI ups growth forecast

Mumbai: Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty climbed over 2 per cent to settle at record high levels on Friday after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) revised upwards the GDP growth projection to 7.2 per cent for 2024-25 from 7 per cent earlier.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 1,720.8 points, or 2.29 per cent, to hit a new record peak of 76,795.31 in day trade. The benchmark ended at a record high of 76,693.36, up 1,618.85 points, or 2.16 per cent.

The NSE Nifty climbed 498.8 points, or 2.18 per cent, to 23,320.20 during the day and is just 18.5 points from the record intraday high. The index settled with a jump of 468.75 points, or 2.05 per cent, at all-time closing high of 23,290.15.

IT and interest rate-sensitive bank, realty, and auto stocks ended with sharp gains.

The RBI left its key interest rates unchanged on Friday as expected, keeping the focus on inflation amid robust economic growth that is likely to provide the new Modi government headroom for manoeuvring reforms.

All the 30 Sensex companies ended in the positive territory, with Mahindra & Mahindra, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, Infosys and Tata Steel emerging as the biggest gainers.

In the broader market, the BSE smallcap gauge climbed 2.18 per cent and midcap index rallied 1.28 per cent.

All indices ended in the positive territory. Telecommunication jumped 3.78 per cent, IT soared 3.38 per cent, while teck (3.33 per cent), auto (2.53 per cent), utilities (2.18 per cent), metal (2.15 per cent), energy (1.99 per cent) and consumer discretionary (1.94 per cent) also advanced.