Nifty, Sensex hit new lifetime highs on frenzied buying

Updated: Friday, March 7, 2014, 15:32 [IST]

Relentless buying in banking stocks pushed indices to fresh lifetime highs with the Sensex now a whisker away from hitting the 22,000 points mark.

The Sensex surged a staggering 401 points (provisional), while the Nifty rallied 125.50 points, as investors bought heavily into equities. In just two and half hours trade, cash volumes crossed the Rs 9000 crore mark. The markets gained the most since Nov 2013.

The gains today were largely being seen as a pre-election rally, fuelled also by falling current account deficit and the gaining rupee.

It was virtually a sharp rally in select five stocks that pushed indices higher. These five stocks included the likes of ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Larsen and Toubro, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries.

High beta real estate names also saw buying interest with DLF, HDIL and Unitech on the buying list.

The Bank Nifty was up more than four per cent in trade with large scale shorts being covered. Union Bank of India, Canara Bank and Syndicate Bank were some of the other PSU banks that gained in trade.

The IT and pharma pockets were very weak in trade. Tata Consultancy Services fell more than one per cent, while Infosys fell more than two per cent, as investors shunned defensives in favour of cyclical.

Investors also abandoned pharma stocks with Ranbaxy, Cipla and Dr Reddy's among the top losers in trade.
Defensive names from the FMCG pack including ITC and Hindustan Unilever were also subdued in trade.

Meanwhile, Asian markets ended the day mixed with notable gainers being the Japanese Nikkei and the Straits Times.

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