Sensex surges over 100 points in early trade; Nifty tops 15,950

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Equity benchmark Sensex jumped over 100 points to touch record intra-day high in early trade on Friday, tracking gains in index majors Reliance Industries, HDFC twins and ITC despite a largely negative trend in global markets. After surging to a peak of 53,290.81 in opening session, the 30-share BSE index was trading 111.60 points or 0.21 per cent higher at 53,270.45 in initial deals, while the broader NSE Nifty rose 33.60 points or 0.21 per cent to 15,957.80. ITC was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, surging over 1 per cent, followed by Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's, Reliance Industries and HDFC.

On the other hand, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank, Infosys and NTPC were among the laggards. In the previous session, Sensex settled 254.75 points or 0.48 per cent higher at its lifetime high of 53,158.85, and Nifty rose 70.25 points or 0.44 per cent to its all-time high of 15,924.20. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 264.77 crore on Thursday, as per provisional exchange data. "Domestic equities look to be modestly good as of now. Notably, dovish remarks of Federal Reserve Chairman Powell in his testimony despite surge in inflation should offer comfort to global equities including India," said Binod Modi Head-Strategy at Reliance Securities.

Benchmark Nifty, which was consolidating in the range of 15,600-15,900 for the last couple of weeks, is set to cross 16,000 levels shortly, he said, adding that higher crude prices, spread of delta plus variant globally and weakening INR could be a near risk for markets. Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo were trading with losses in mid-session deals, while Hong Kong was trading in the positive territory. Equities on Wall Street too ended on a negative note in overnight sessions. Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.12 per cent to USD 73.38 per barrel.

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