Sensex, Nifty leap to new record highs on funds inflow

Mumbai: Raising the bar, the Sensex today shot up another 181 points to a fresh all-time intra-day high of 30,503 and the Nifty 9,482, with retail investors steering the ship amid unabated foreign capital inflows. Encouraging earnings also supported the rally.

The 30-share BSE index leapt 181.36 points, or 0.60 per cent, to trade at a new record 30,503.48, surpassing its previous milestone of 30,366.43 (intra-day) touched on May 11. The gauge had rallied 134 points in the previous session.

The National Stock Exchange index Nifty did not disappoint either, gaining another 36.90 points, or 0.39 per cent, to hit a new high of 9,482.30, breaching its previous intra-day high of 9,450.65 hit on May 11.

All the BSE sectoral indices led by technology, power, FMCG, IT, consumer durables and healthcare were in the positive terrain, with gains of up to 0.66 per cent. Tata Steel was on a bull run and added 0.82 per cent as investors widened their exposure ahead of its quarterly earnings due later in the day and on the government's decision to impose anti-dumping duty on some steel products.

Other major gainers that supported the key indices were Bharti Airtel (2.78 per cent), RIL (1.89 per cent), TCS (1.46 per cent), Dr Reddy's (1.30 per cent), Tata Motors (1.17 per cent) and ITC (1.05 per cent).

Sentiment remained upbeat mostly on robust foreign fund inflows and a better-than-expected earnings report card by some blue-chip companies so far, besides overnight gains in Europe and the US markets.

Japan's Nikkei rose 0.03 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.36 per cent in early trade today. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.41 per cent higher yesterday.