Sensex, Nifty hit fresh record high levels in early trade

New Delhi: Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty hit their fresh record high levels in early trade on Thursday after retail inflation slipped to one-year low in May along with buying in IT stocks.

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The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 538.89 points to hit its lifetime peak of 77,145.46. The NSE Nifty climbed 158.1 points to its record peak of 23,481.05.

Among the 30 Sensex companies, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Nestle, Titan, HCL Technologies, Bajaj Finance, Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tata Consultancy Services and Bajaj Finserv were the biggest gainers.

Hindustan Unilever and Power Grid were the laggards.

"There is good news on the inflation front, both in the US and in India. The takeaway from the inflation numbers is that the disinflation process is well on track. From the market perspective, this is positive news, particularly for banking stocks," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.36 percent to USD 82.30 a barrel.

"The US Fed kept interest rates unchanged for the seventh time in a row at 5.5 percent. The Fed Chief acknowledged modest progress on inflation as against no progress at all in the last meeting. Markets took this acknowledgement on inflation in a positive stride," said Apurva Sheth, Head of Market Perspectives and Research, SAMCO Securities.

The BSE benchmark climbed 149.98 points or 0.20 percent to settle at 76,606.57 on Wednesday. The Nifty ended at a new closing peak of 23,322.95, up 58.10 points or 0.25 percent.

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