Sensex, Nifty hit fresh lifetime high levels in early trade

Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty hit their lifetime peaks in early trade on Thursday, amid firm global market trends, buying in blue-chip stocks and robust FIIs inflows. The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 388.84 points to hit a record peak of 80,375.64 in early trade. Also, the Nifty climbed 114.45 points to hit a lifetime high of 24,400.95.

Among the Sensex pack, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Infosys, HCL Technologies and Tata Consultancy Services were the biggest gainers.

HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, and Bharti Airtel were among the laggards.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 5,483.63 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.

"The big FII buying of Rs 5,484 crore on Wednesday is largely due to the massive delivery-based buying in banking stocks led by HDFC Bank. This delivery-based buying may sustain for a few more days imparting resilience to the market.

"The FIIs with 3.78 lakh long contracts have taken a 'U' turn in their market approach from the big short contracts in early June. A decline in the US 10-year bond yield to 4.35 per cent and the dollar index declining to 105.29 are positives for fund inflows," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.

Market will start responding to the Q1 results which will start flowing in from next week, he added.

In Asian markets, Tokyo and Seoul were trading in the positive territory on Thursday, while Shanghai and Hong Kong were quoting lower.

US markets ended higher on Wednesday during the shortened trading session. The markets are closed on Thursday on account of Independence Day.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude fell 0.60 per cent to USD 86.82 a barrel.

On Wednesday, the 30-share Sensex hit the historic 80,000 mark for the first time intra-day trade.

It surged 632.85 points or 0.79 per cent to a record intraday high of 80,074.30. The index later closed near the 80,000 level at 79,986.80, up by 545.35 points or 0.69 per cent over the last close.