Sensex, Nifty soar to fresh lifetime highs amid unabated foreign fund inflows; M&M, Sun Pharma among top gainers

Mumbai: Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty surged to fresh highs on Wednesday, tracking gains in index heavyweights HDFC Bank, RIL and ITC amid unabated foreign fund inflows.

#MarketAtClose | #Sensex & #Nifty end at record closing highs, Midcaps underperform. Nifty gains 57 points to see a close above 12,200 for the 1st time; Sensex advances 206 points to post record close of 41,559 pic.twitter.com/sFMcVICwJX

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) December 18, 2019

After rallying to its record intra-day peak of 41,614.77, the 30-share BSE Sensex settled 206.40 points, or 0.50 percent, higher at its all-time closing high of 41,558.57.

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty advanced 56.65 points, or 0.47 percent, to its record closing high of 12,221.65.

Representative image. Reuters

M&M was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, surging 3.37 percent, followed by Sun Pharma 2.53 percent, Asian Paints 1.88 percent, ITC 1.66 percent, HDFC Bank 1.58 percent and Tech Mahindra 1.51 percent.

On the other hand, Tata Motors plunged 3.05 percent after the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Wednesday ordered restoration of Cyrus Mistry as the Executive Chairman of Tata Sons. NCLAT also held the appointment of N Chandrasekaran as Executive Chairman illegal.

Other Tata group stocks including Tata Power, Tata Chemicals and Tata Global Beverages too fell up to 4.14 percent.

HUL, SBI and Yes Bank fell 1.79 percent each. NTPC, PowerGrid and Bajaj Finance also ended in the red.

Besides stock-specific action, sustained foreign fund inflows boosted market mood here, traders said.

On a net basis, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 728.13 crore, while domestic institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 796.38 crore on Tuesday, data available with stock exchange showed.

Bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo ended on a mixed note, while those in Europe saw tepid trading sentiment.

On the currency front, the rupee depreciated 6 paise against the US dollar to 71.05 (intra-day).

Brent futures, the global oil benchmark, was fell 0.76 percent to $65.58 per barrel.