Mumbai: The BSE Sensex and Nifty rose nearly 1% to a record high on Thursday as investors bet an improving economy and government reforms would allow the country to better withstand potential rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve.
Led by the recent economic reforms announced by the government, the benchmark BSE Sensex surged 248.16 points to end at a new closing peak of 27,346.33 and the NSE index Nifty rose 78.75 points at 8,169.20.
All BSE sectoral indices ended in the green. Among them, realty index was the star-performer and was up 3.44%, followed by IT 2.04%, TECk 1.77% and oil & gas 1.65%.
Reliance, TCS, Hindalco, Infosys and GAIL were the top five gainers among 30-share Sensex constituents, while the top five losers were SSLT, M&M, Cipla, Tata Power and Hero MotoCorp.
Meanwhile, the dollar surged to a three-week high, bond yields rose and gold fell on Thursday after the US Federal Reserve ended its six-year quantitative easing bond-buying programme.
The decision was widely expected, but a relatively hawkish tone to the accompanying statement was not. It prompted financial markets to rethink the growing consensus that the Fed’s first interest rate hike would be late in 2015.
Stock market reaction was more mixed. Asian shares mostly fell, following a slight decline on Wall Street overnight. European bourses opened higher on Thursday, helped by encouraging corporate earnings, but quickly turned negative.