Nifty closes above 13K for first time, Sensex at record high; M&M, ITC, SBI top gainers

Market indices ended at record highs on Tuesday, amid positive cues from global markets and unabated foreign fund inflows. Sensex ended 445 points higher at 44,523 and Nifty gained 128 points to 13,055. During the session, Sensex hit a lifetime high of 44,601 and Nifty touched record high of 13,079. Yesterday, Sensex closed 194 points higher at 44,077 and Nifty gained by 67 points to 12,926.

Traders said banking, FMCG and auto stocks saw heavy buying amid optimism over COVID-19 vaccine progress and unabated foreign capital inflows. A strengthening rupee further boosted investor confidence, they added.

In line with the domestic market, global equities scaled record highs today, encouraged by news on the development of coronavirus vaccines and more assurance for a transition of power in the US to President-elect Joe Biden.

HDFC Bank followed by Maruti, ONGC, Axis Bank, L&T, Titan, ICICI Bank and PowerGrid were among the top gainers on Sensex. On the other hand, Bajaj Auto, Nestle India, Infosys and Hindustan Unilever were among the laggards.  Barring telecom, all BSE sectoral indices ended in the green territory, led by gains of 2-1% in banking, financials, pharma, auto, realty, and metal.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said, "Market is inching higher with more confidence that Covid19 vaccine will be available in India soon. It can provide an advantage to India compared to the rest of the world. While, foreign inflows have already broken to a new high on a monthly basis, due to risk on strategy on healthier EMs like India. The recently broad market, including Mid & Small caps, have started to perform better which may continue in the short-term as large caps look expensive post the solid rally from Covid low"

Keshav Lahoti, Associate Equity Analyst, Angel Broking said," It will be crucial for the Nifty to remain above 13,000 level for the rally to continue. Rally was across all sectors led by the banking sector. The market is rallying due to optimism around economic recovery,  FII buying, positive global cues and investors shifting their money from other asset classes especially from gold to equity. Global cues were positive: Dow Futures, Nasdaq Futures and FTSE were up by 1.0%, 0.4% and 0.9% respectively."

On the currency front, the Indian rupee appreciated by 10 paise to close at 74.01 per US dollar.