The Indian equity market went to record highs on Friday, rising for the fourth straight session, led by buying in index majors Reliance Industries, Wipro and Maruti. The Sensex climbed 20.96 points to 62,293. Its new record closing high is 64. It jumped 175.05 points or 0.28 per cent to 62,447 during the day. Its lifetime peak was 73 years old.
The Nifty was up 28.65 points or 0.15 per cent to 18,512 at the end of the day. It's a new all-time high, 75.
Reliance Industries was the largest gainer among the Sensex firms, topping Wipro 1.16% Tech Mahindra 1.01% Axis Bank 0.98% IndusInd Bank 0.86% Maruti 0.79% Tata Steel 0.71% and Mahindra Mahindra 0.71%.
Nestle 1.30% Kotak Mahindra Bank 0.95% ICICI Bank 0.87% Titan 0.58% and HDFC Bank 0.54% were the top Sensex losers.
The index has posted a muted close after a sideward trading session, said Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities. The Nifty has reached the rising trend line found by joining the previous peaks, according to the daily chart. The momentum indicator has reached the falling trendline on the daily timeframe. We can infer from the price chart and momentum indicator setup that the index is on the verge of strong directional movement over the short term. A fall below 18,450 may cause a correction towards 18,100 -- 18,000 on the lower end, while a rise above 18,605 may cause a decent rally in the market. The market breadth was positive with 2119 shares closing higher against 1386 stocks falling on the BSE. 127 shares were unchanged. Auto and IT shares were the top gainers with their BSE indices rising 258 points and 125 points, respectively.
Foreign Institutional Investors FIIs turned net buyers as they bought shares worth Rs 1,231. The data shows that there were 98 crore on Thursday.
Markets in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul ended up falling in Asia, while Shanghai settled in the green. Equity exchanges in Europe were trading lower in the afternoon. Wall Street was closed for a holiday on Thursday. International oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 1.21 per cent higher at $86.37 per barrel.