Sensex Today: A sharp surge in the afternoon session on Thursday pushed benchmarks — BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty — to record high levels. While the Sensex index topped the 81,000-mark for the first time, the Nifty50 surpassed 24,800 in the intraday trade.
The 30-stock Sensex index ended at 81,343, up 627 points or 0.78 per cent, after hitting a record high of 81,522.5. The broader Nifty50, meanwhile, ended at 24,801, up 188 points or 0.76 per cent, after hitting a lifetime peak of 24,838.
TCS, Bajaj Finserv, M&M, HUL, Infosys, HCL Tech, Tech M, SBI, Kotak Bank, Bharti Airtel, ITC, and ICICI Bank rallied in the range of 0.7 per cent to 3 per cent.
The broader markets, however, stayed in the negative zone with the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices falling 0.99 per cent and 1.15 per cent, respectivrly.
Among sectors, the Nifty IT index gained 2.2 per cent, and ending above the 40,000-mark. This was followed by the Nifty Financial Services index (up 0.57 per cent). On the downside, the Nifty Media index fell 3.57 per cent.
Global Cues
Japan’s Nikkei dropped 2 per cent, while South Korea’s Kospi fell 1 per cent in Asia-Pacific markets amid fears of tech war between the US and China.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.5 per cent, followed by Australia’s ASX200 (down 0.1 per cent).
The nervousness follows an equally wobbly session overnight in the US, where the Nasdaq Composite fell nearly 2.8 per cent — posting its worst day since December 2022.
The moves came after Bloomberg on Wednesday reported that the Joe Biden administration is considering a wide-sweeping rule to clamp down on companies exporting their critical chipmaking equipment to China.
Besides, former president Donald Trump said Taiwan should pay the US for its defence. He also claimed Taiwan took ‘about 100 per cent’ of America’s semiconductor business.
The broad S&P 500 also shed 1.39 per cent.
Dow Jones, however, extended its gains to close 0.6 per cent higher.
