The two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Thursday, closed higher for the fifth straight session, after touching fresh lifetime highs during the day. The S&P BSE Sensex logged a new record high of 72,484.34 and settled at 72,410.38, climbing 371.95 points in the day. The NSE Nifty50 reached a fresh high of 21,801.45 during the day before closing at 21,778.70, a gain of 123.95 points.
On the 30-share Sensex platform, M&M, NTPC, PowerGrid, Nestle India, and Tata Motors emerged as the prime gainers. On the flip side, L&T, Wipro, UltraTech Cement, Asian Paints, and TCS remained among the losers during the day.
In the broader markets, the Nifty Microcap 250 remained the only laggard and dropped 0.37 per cent during the day. The Nifty Smallcap 50 led the indices and climbed 1.07 per cent, followed by the Nifty Midcap 50 and the Nifty Midcap Select which gained 0.92 per cent and 0.81 per cent respectively.
Sectorally, except for consumer durables and IT, all other sectoral indices closed in the green. The Nifty Oil and Gas index gained 2 per cent, followed by the Nifty FMCG, and Healthcare Index, both up by 1.35 per cent and 1.24 per cent respectively.
In the previous session on Wednesday, the equity benchmarks closed higher for the fourth consecutive session. The S&P BSE Sensex hit a fresh lifetime high of 72,098. It ended at 72,038, up 702 points. On the other hand, the NSE Nifty50 hit a new record high of 21,676 during intra-day trading. But it settled at 21,655, up 213 points.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude gained 0.08 per cent to touch $79.71 a barrel. Foreign institutional investors purchased equities worth Rs 2,926.05 crore on Wednesday, official data from the exchange revealed.
Meanwhile, the rupee appreciated 17 paise to settle at 83.17 (provisional) against the US dollar on Thursday. At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 83.33 and touched 83.26 against the dollar in morning trade, before settling at 83.17 (provisional) against the greenback.