Sensex Hits 50,000 For First Time, Nifty Above 14,700, Led By Reliance Industries

The S&P BSE Sensex moved above 50,000 mark for the first on Thursday, led by gains in Reliance Industries after the market regulator SEBI approved Reliance Industries' Rs 24,713-crore deal to buy Future Group's retail assets, in a blow to Amazon's efforts to block the agreement. The BSE also granted its "no adverse observation" report after the deal clearance from the market regulator, with some riders. The Sensex rose as much as 335 points to hit an all-time high of 50,126.73 and Nifty 50 index also moved 14,700 mark for the first time.

As of 1:08 pm, the Sensex rose 320 points to 50,111 and Nifty 50 index advanced 89 points to 14,734.

Meanwhile, other Asian markets also rose to new record highs on Thursday, tracking US markets as investors hoped for more economic stimulus from newly inaugurated US President Joe Biden to offset damage wreaked by the COVID-19 pandemic.

US President Joe Biden, who was sworn into office on Wednesday, last week laid out a $1.9 trillion stimulus package proposal to boost the economy and speed up the distribution of vaccines.

Back home, better-than anticipated corporate earnings, hopes of bold economic reforms in the upcoming budget and sustained buying by foreign institutional investors is keeping the investors' sentiment bullish on equity markets.

Buying was visible across sectors as all sector gauges, barring the index of metal stocks, were trading higher led by the Nifty Auto index's 1 per cent gain. Nifty Bank, IT, Media, Pharma and Private Bank indices also rose over 0.5 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares were in-line with their larger peers as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices rose 0.7 per cent.

Bajaj Finance was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 3 per cent to Rs 5,143 after the lender reported a 29 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,145.98 crore for the three months to December due to higher losses and provisions.

Tata Motors, UPL, Bajaj Finserv, IndusInd Bank, Reliance Industries, HCL Technologies, Eicher Motors, Hero MotoCorp, Shree Cement, Dr Reddy's Labs and Wipro also rose between 1-3.5 per cent.

On the flip side, Adani Ports, TCS, HDFC, Tata Steel, GAIL India, JSW Steel, Bharat Petroleum and HDFC Bank were among the notable losers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,484 shares were advancing while 614 were declining on the BSE.