Benchmark Sensex and Nifty logged their sixth straight session of gains to scale new peaks on Tuesday, tracking upbeat Asian peers amid hopes that China would soon ease Covid restrictions after public unrest.
The BSE gauge Sensex opened the session on a negative note but reversed losses to touched its all-time intraday peak at 62,887. It finally ended the session 177 points or 0.28 percent higher at 62,682.
Likewise, the NSE Nifty marked its life-time intraday high at 18,678 before easing some gains later in the day. The index finally closed 55 points or 0.30 percent up at 18,618.
On the Sensex chart, HUL, Sun Pharma, Nestle, Dr Reddy’s and Tata Steel were major gainers – up as much as 4.34 percent.
On the other hand, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj FinServ, Maruti, PowerGrid, Bajaj Finance were top laggards.
The Sensex breadth was in favour of sellers as 16 shares closed in the red.
Sectorally, FMCG, Consumer Durables and Metal indices rose the most.
“The troubles in China are a matter of concern but it is too early to judge its impact on the global economy. This is an issue that has to be watched closely. Meanwhile, domestic economic cues continue to be positive. The September quarter credit growth has risen to an impressive 17.2 percent and the employment by listed companies has crossed the 10 million mark in 2021-22. Banking stocks can remain resilient in spite of record levels. Comments and indications on the trajectory of US interest rates are more likely to impact global equity markets more than anything else,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
Elsewhere in Asia, shares rose on hopes that public unrest in China might prompt an earlier loosening of COVID-19 curbs in the world’s biggest economy, with the yuan up and the dollar down as investor appetite for riskier assets grew.
The Euro STOXX 600 gained 0.4 percent, recovering from its worst session in almost two weeks a day earlier. Shares in London were up 0.8 percent and markets in Paris and Frankfurt gained up to 0.3 percent.
Hopes of faster easing of China’s strict restrictions rose after an official said they will continue to fine-tune policy to reduce the impact of its “Zero COVID” on society.
