BSE Sensex, Nifty Rally to Record Highs

BSE Sensex and Nifty rose to fresh record highs today, buoyed by buying in FMCG and IT stocks.  The Sensex gained over 150 points to set a new life high of 28,027.96 while Nifty touched a new high of 8,383.05.

The breadth of the market was positive with BSE midcap and small indices rising nearly 0.6 per cent.

The Cabinet expansion has been welcomed by business groups. On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appointed a separate defence minister in Former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar to spur military modernisation and free Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to focus on the budget and reforms to revive the economy.

"The Cabinet expansion sends out a strong signal that the government under Prime Minister Modi is serious about accelerating the reforms process," said Ajay Shriram, president of the Confederation of Indian Industry.  

Pharma stocks saw strong buying action today with Sun Pharma rising nearly 4 per cent. Sun Pharma got a boost after its Taro Pharma unit reported a 22 per cent sales growth in Q2. Taro contributes to around 25-30 per cent of Sun Pharma's overall topline. Sun Pharma announces its quarterly numbers on Thursday. Among other pharma stocks, Dr Reddy's and Lupin were up over 1 per cent.

Market heavyweight ITC rose over 2.5 per cent. Some buying also came into banking stocks with PNB, Axis Bank and SBI among gainers.

Some profit-taking was seen in IT stocks with Tech Mahindra, TCS and HCL Tech among decliners.

(With Agency Inputs)