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Sensex breaches 50,000 mark for the first time; Nifty hits record high of 14,700

It has grown 10 times in the past twenty years, as more and more money flew into Indian equities
Last Updated 21 January 2021, 04:01 IST

At the turn of the millennium in October 1999, when BSE Sensex, recouping from the Harshad Mehta scam, breached the 5,000-mark for the first time, nobody would have that history would be created in just two decades.

But here we are, the 30-share benchmark of BSE, Sensex, has breached the historic 50,000 mark. It has grown 10 times in the past twenty years, as more and more money flew into Indian equities.

At the time of filing this copy, the Sensex was trading at 50,096.57, up 230.69 points from the previous close. Nifty surged 72.95 points to hit a record high of 14,717.65.

Interestingly, as Sensex crosses the 50,000 in the next 23 days, it has made yet another record: its fastest 10,000 summits. The Sensex had breached the 40,000 mark 610 days back. Previously, Sensex had moved from 10,000 to 20,000 in the 2007 stock market rally.

In its journey of 42 years, during which the benchmark index saw many additions and many subtractions to it, it has managed to give compounded annual returns of just shy of 15.5 per cent.

The only index that is trading above the levels of BSE Sensex is Brazilian Bovespa, which has been long past the 100,000 level.

"Sensex has been making higher top - higher bottom on a monthly scale and all set to hit a fresh lifetime high of psychological 50,000 marks," says Chandan Taparia of Motilal Oswal.

But despite this, the connection between the real economy seems to have been lost: between April 2020 and till now, the market has rallied when the economy has tanked like never before.

With this, the Sensex has almost doubled in less than 12 months. It had touched a low of 25,880.83 on March 23, 2020. But as global stimuli got diverted to equity markets, the Sensex saw a rebound and a v-shape recovery.

Now immediate support is seen at 48,500 to extend its move towards 51,500-52,000 zones in next coming weeks ahead of Budget 2021, Taparia adds.

This has led to a caution alert from many analysts. "As expectations rise with the Sensex breaching new 'heights of irrationality', markets continue to bathe in a heady cocktail of greed and fear. Professionals and institutions will look out for the tipping point where greed overcomes fear (and the liquidity taps turn off) to execute their next round of investments/exits," says Anubhav Srivastava of Infinity Alternatives.

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(Published 21 January 2021, 03:46 IST)

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