Sensex crosses 52,000 mark for the first time

Mumbai: Equity benchmark Sensex rallied over 500 points to scale its fresh lifetime high in opening trade on Monday tracking gains in index-heavyweights HDFC twins, ICICI Bank and Kotak Bank amid positive trend in global markets.

The 30-share BSE index was trading 515.40 points or 1 per cent higher at 52,059.70.

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty was quoting 135.90 points or 0.90 per cent up at 15,299.20. It touched a record of 15,314.30 in early trade.

IndusInd Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising around 2 per cent, followed by Axis Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank and SBI.

On the other hand, ONGC, Tech Mahindra, NTPC, Sun Pharma and TCS were among the laggards.

In the previous session, Sensex settled 12.78 points or 0.02 per cent higher at its new closing record of 51,544.30, while Nifty slipped 10 points or 0.07 per cent to 15,163.30.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 37.33 crore on Friday, as per exchange data.

According to VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, CPI inflation for January at 4.06 per cent, and the rebound in IIP are positive news for the market.

The Nifty Bank Index is up by 15.5 per cent this year compensating for the relatively poor performance in 2020, he noted.

“The important takeaway from this and other important data pertaining to credit growth, IIP, electricity consumption, e-way bills, GST collections and sales of commodities like cement and autos is that the growth recovery is gaining momentum. If this trend is sustained, corporate profits will surprise on the upside in FY 22,” he said.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Tokyo and Seoul were trading on a positive note in mid-session deals.

Meanwhile, the global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 1.79 per cent higher at USD 63.55 per barrel.