Mumbai: Benchmark indices climbed in early trade on Wednesday, with the BSE Sensex hitting its lifetime high of 63,588.31, amid buying in index majors HDFC twins and Reliance Industries. The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed by 146 points to reach 63,473.70 in early trade. The NSE Nifty advanced by 37 points to settle at 18,853.70. Later, the BSE benchmark jumped 260.61 points to reach its all-time peak of 63,588.31. The benchmark reached the milestone after a gap of nearly seven months.
The 30-share BSE benchmark settled higher by 159.40 points or 0.25 percent at 63,327.70 on Tuesday. The Nifty advanced by 61.25 points or 0.33 percent to end at 18,816.70. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 1,942.62 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.
From the Sensex pack, Power Grid, UltraTech Cement, HDFC Bank, Wipro, HDFC, Hindustan Unilever, Larsen & Toubro, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv, Titan, Tata Consultancy Services, and Reliance Industries were the major gainers. Tata Steel, NTPC, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, and Asian Paints were among the laggards.
In Asian markets, Tokyo quoted in the green, while Seoul, Shanghai, and Hong Kong were trading lower. The US markets ended lower on Tuesday. Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed by 0.26 percent to USD 76.09 a barrel.
"It is important to understand that this is a global rally with most markets US, Euro Zone, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, hovering around 52-week highs. Globally markets are bullish even when global growth is sluggish.
The reason for this bullish trend is that the US recession, which markets had discounted last year, didn't happen and there are indications that the US might avoid a recession. So, markets are correcting the wrong discounting of last year," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.
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