Sensex, Nifty Post New Closing Highs; Nifty Very Nearly Breaches 20k Mark

(RTTNews) - After struggling for direction till noon, Indian shares began climbing higher and hoisted the benchmark indices Sensex and the Nifty50 to new record highs on Thursday.

The benchmark BSE Sensex hit a fresh record at 67,619.17 and ended with a gain of 474.46 points or 0.71% at 67,571.90. The National Stock Exchange's Nifty50 settled at 19,79.15 with a gain of 146 points or 0.74%, after very nearly hitting the 20,000 mark. The index touched 19,991.85.

FMCG, bank and healthcare stocks were in demand. IT stocks underperformed with investors awaiting results from Infosys.

In a special trading session this morning to calculate the market price of Jio Financial Services (JSFL), which has been demerged from Reliance Industries, the Jio Financial Services stock price stood at Rs 261.85. Reliance Industries ended the session at Rs 2,623.00, gaining about 1.7%.

FMCG major ITC climbed 2.8% on huge volumes. Kotak Bank gained about 2.7%. ICICI Bank climbed 2.25%, while Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Axis Bank, Hindustan Unilever and JSW Steel gained 1 to 1.75%.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Cipla, Grasim Industries, Tata Consumer Products and Bajaj Auto also ended notably higher.

Infosys ended 1.7% down. UltraTech Cement and HCL Technologies lost 1.21% and 1.09%, respectively. TCS and Wipro edged down marginally.

Bajaj Finserv, Eicher Motors, Britannia Industries and Titan Industries also closed weak.

The market breadth was almost neutral. On BSE, 1,748 stocks closed higher, and 1,632 stocks ended weak, while 132 stocks settled little changed from their previous closing levels.