The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes surged to close at record highs on Tuesday following their best monthly gain since April, after data showed a smaller-than-expected contraction in Asia’s third-largest economy and as hopes for a COVID-19 vaccine boosted bets for a quicker economic recovery. The Sensex rose as much as 581 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 13,128.40. Infosys, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services and Bharti Airtel were top movers in the Sensex.
The Sensex rose 506 points to close at record high of 44,655 and Nifty 50 index climbed 140 points to settle at 13,109.
Breakthroughs in developments for a vaccine had driven markets across the world sharply higher in November, with benchmarks climbing over 11 per cent each on the back of record inflows from foreign institutional investors.
The domestic market extended gains on Tuesday after data released late Friday showed the economy contracted by 7.5 per cent in the September quarter, versus an 8.8 per cent contraction expected in a Reuters poll, amid signs of a pick-up in manufacturing.
Buying was visible across sectors as all the 11 sector gauges, barring the index of FMCG shares, compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty Realty index’s over 3 per cent gain. PSU Bank, Pharma, Media, IT, Metal, and Auto indexes also rose between 1-3 per cent.
Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed buying as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indexes rose nearly 1 per cent each.
GAIL India was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 8 per cent to close at Rs 111. Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, Tech Mahindra, UPL, ONGC and Bharti Airtel were also among the gainers.
On the flipside, Nestle India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Titan, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Bank, NTPC, Larsen & Toubro and HDFC Life were among the notable losers.
The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 1,922 shares ended higher while 976 closed lower on the BSE.