Sensex rallies over 400 pts to new peak in early trade; Nifty tops 17,700

Equity benchmark Sensex rallied over 400 points to scale a fresh peak of 59,550.88 in early trade on Friday (September 17), tracking gains in index majors Bajaj Finance, HDFC twins and ICICI Bank amid sustained foreign fund inflows.

The broader NSE Nifty too surged more than 100 points to reach its new peak of 17,747.80 in the opening session.

The 30-share Sensex was trading 418.53 points or 0.71 per cent higher at 59,559.69. Similarly, Nifty advanced 113.15 points or 0.64 per cent to 17,742.65 in initial deals.

ITC was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising nearly 3 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finance, Titan, Bajaj Finserv and Bharti Airtel.

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On the other hand, Tata Steel, NTPC, IndusInd Bank and PowerGrid were among the laggards.

In the previous session, the 30-share index climbed 417.96 points or 0.71 per cent to its new closing peak of 59,141.16, and Nifty surged 110.05 points or 0.63 per cent to finish at its fresh lifetime high of 17,629.50.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth ₹1,621.88 crore on Thursday, as per provisional exchange data.

“The market is now driven by momentum with valuations on the back burner. Even FIIs who were skeptical about valuations and sold heavily in July have come back strongly and are chasing the momentum. FIIs have invested ₹5,344 crore in the cash market during the last three days,” said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Nifty has now appreciated by around 10,000 points from the March 2020 lows. Even die-hard bulls would not have foreseen such a ferocious rally. Now the bulls are unlikely to let go of their grip on the market till 18,000 on Nifty/60,000 on Sensex is reached, he said.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong were trading with gains in mid-session deals, while Shanghai was in the red.

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US equities ended on a mixed note in the overnight session.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude slipped 0.22 per cent to USD 75.50 per barrel.