Nifty flies to record, Airtel leads from front
Mumbai, Oct 13 (PTI) Riding on the tailwinds of strong IIPnumbers, the Nifty today flew to a record close at 10,167 andthe Sensex hit off an over two-month high as investors threwcaution to winds and went ahead with more buying.
The rupee stood firm against the American currency, whichfuelled the rally.
The 50-share NSE index sprinted to 10,167.45 -- a freshrecord -- up 71.05 points, or 0.70 per cent -- after scaling anew intra-day high of 10,191.90. It surpassed its previousrecord closing of 10,153.10 hit on September 18.
The 30-share BSE Sensex opened positive and settled thesession higher by 250.47 points, or 0.78 per cent, at32,432.69 -- its biggest closing since August 2.
The gauge had shot up 348 points yesterday.
For the second straight week, both indices rose, with theSensex adding 618.47 points, or 1.94 per cent -- the biggestsuch weekly jump since July 14 when it read 660.12 points, or2.10 per cent -- and the NSE Nifty soared 187.75 points, or1.88 per cent.
Industrial production expanded to a 9-month high of 4.3per cent in August while retail inflation came in at 3.28 percent in September, unchanged from August.
"Better IIP figures have given reasons for investors toresume buying, pushing behind fears of soft corporate numbers.
IT results have also worked to this end, pushing indices tonewer heights, adding to the crescendo of positive vibes aheadof the festive season," said Anand James, Chief MarketStrategist, Geojit Financial Services.
With this rally, investor wealth swelled to Rs 138.19lakh crore.
The overall investor optimism rubbed off on broadermarkets as well, in the process lifting BSE small-cap andmid-cap indices.
Bharti Airtel was the big hitter, surging 7.89 per centto Rs 431.60 as the company announced acquisition of Tatagroup's loss-making mobile telephony business, almost forfree, boosting its spectrum holding and user base.
IT bellwether TCS firmed up 0.32 per cent to Rs 2,556.75even even as the company's net profit fell 2.1 per cent in theSeptember quarter.
Reliance Industries climbed 0.48 per cent to end at arecord high of Rs 876.70 on expectations of strong earningsfrom the conglomerate's core petrochemical business. Theresults are slated later for the day.
Tata Steel, Kotak Bank, Coal India, HDFC Bank and ICICIBank had a field day, surging by up to 2.86 per cent.
The BSE telecom index saw maximum buying, climbing 5.27per cent, followed by banking, technology and metal indices.
Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) remained netbuyers, picking up shares worth Rs 872.54 crore yesterday.
However, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) gave up shares netRs 668.13 crore, showed provisional data.
While most Asian shares closed up, Europe showed a two-way trend in the early part. PTI SUN KPS DPARD.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.