Mumbai: Indian shares hit a record high boosted by heavy-weight banks and IT stocks in a volatile session. The Nifty 50 hit a record high of 25,337 points, while BSE Sensex also scaled an all-time high.
The Nifty was last up 1.7%, while the Sensex gained 1.5%. The market capitalisation of all listed companies on BSE surged by ₹6.6 lakh crore to ₹467.36 lakh crore.
IT companies rose by 1% while Nifty Bank, Auto, Financial Services, Healthcare, and Oil & Gas sectors all saw gains of over 1%. Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and Infosys together added almost 500 points to the Sensex rally. L&T, M&M, NTPC, ICICI Bank, and SBI were also significant contributors to the surge in the index.
This comes as US consumer prices in August showed a slight increase, with core inflation rising by 0.28%, surpassing the expected 0.2%. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said, “Latest US inflation numbers are mildly positive for markets. August CPI inflation coming at 0.2% has brought down the 12-month inflation to 2.5% from 2.9% earlier. This paves the way for a rate cut by the Fed in September. But since core inflation continues to remain high at 3.2% the Fed is likely to be cautious and refrain from a 50bp rate cut, finally settling for a 25bp rate cut.”
Meanwhile, oil prices dropped over 10% in September due to weak Chinese demand and concerns about global oversupply.