Markets extend record run, Sensex breaches 69K mark

Mumbai, December 5

Benchmark Sensex and Nifty soared to new lifetime highs on Tuesday, fuelled by robust buying in power, banking and utility stocks, extending their rally for a sixth consecutive session.

The Sensex jumped 431.02 points to close at a new record high of 69,296.14. As many as 20 Sensex scrips closed with gains. The Nifty also climbed 168.50 points to hit its lifetime high of 20,855.30 with 32 of its components closing in the green.

The market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms surged by more than Rs 2.5 lakh crore to cross Rs 350 lakh crore on Tuesday.

Analysts said the positive sentiment was fuelled by unabated inflow of foreign funds on the back of robust sentiment built up over favourable macroeconomic data in the previous week and the results of assembly polls of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh that raised expectations of longer political stability in the country.

Also, investors are expecting the Reserve Bank to maintain the status quo on the interest rate in its bi-monthly monetary policy decision to be announced on Friday, they said.

Among major Sensex movers, Power Grid rose the most by 4.46%, NTPC by 3.89%, SBI by 2.31% and ICICI Bank by 2.28%. Other gainers included Mahindra & Mahindra, Titan and Maruti.

On the other hand, Hindustan Unilever, HCL Tech, Bajaj Finance remained laggards with losses of up to 1.49 per cent.