78K & counting: There's no stopping these bulls
equity indices surged to record highs on Tuesday with the Sensex closing above 78,000 for the first time as renewed strength in private banks gave a fresh fillip to the market that had begun showing signs of fatigue after the recent rally.
The BSE benchmark ended at 78,053.52, up 712.45 points or 0.92% after hitting its lifetime high of 78,164.71. NSE's Nifty rose 183.45 points or 0.78% to a close at a record 23,721.3. The index hit an all-time high of 23,754.15 during the day.
«Private bank and financial services stocks, which hold the highest weight on Nifty, have been the drivers of the index,» said Pankaj Pandey, head of fundamental research at ICICI Direct. «Reduced FPI (foreign portfolio investor) selling intensity in the last couple of days has also helped the market.»
Private lenders were the top index gainers with the Bank Nifty jumping 1.7% to fresh highs of 52,606 on Tuesday. Axis Bank gained 3.6%, ICICI Bank rose 2.9% and HDFC Bank advanced 2.1%.
«Bank Nifty, which has been a laggard so far, has picked up momentum again and it may go up to 53,400-54,300 in the near term,» said Kapil Shah, technical analyst at Emkay Global. «Last week it saw its best performance in 20 weeks and we see good traction in this space.»
On Tuesday, foreign portfolio investors net bought shares worth 1,175.91 crore after purchasing to the tune of 860 crore on Monday. These investors have bought shares worth 16,004 crore so far in June, after selling to the tune of 25,586 crore in May. Domestic institutions were sellers to
