Nifty rises to record high above 9000,Sensex at over 1mth peak

Rising for the fourth session, the benchmark Sensex today jumped 134.59 points to end at over one-month high of 29,593.73 and the NSE's Nifty breached the 9,000-mark for the first time on the back of foreign buying in RIL, Cipla, Sun Pharma and TCS shares.

The Nifty, after hitting record high of 9,008.40 in the fag-end, settled a tad lower at new closing peak of 8,996.25 -- a gain of 39.50 points or 0.44 per cent.

The NSE index today surpassed its previous all-time record of of 8,996.60 hit on January 30 and also beating its previous closing peak of 8,956.75 in yesterday's trade. In 4 days, it has gained 310 points or 3.6 per cent. Growth oriented Budget proposals and buying in refinery, pharma and IT scrips helped.

After slipping to the red on profit-booking amid data showing growth in eight core industries slowed to 13-month low in January, the 30-share Sensex bounced back.

It touched the session's high of 29,636.86 on buying, before settling with a gain of 134.59 points, or 0.46 per cent, at over one-month high of 29,593.73. In the four-days of the rally, it has jumped nearly 850 points.

Reliance Industries led the surge as its scrip zoomed over 4 per cent on the back of fund-buying and expectations of solid profit growth in March quarter.

IT giant TCS also spurted about 4 per cent, followed by 2 per cent gains in HDFC and Sun Pharma. The drug major will buy GSK's Opiates business in Australia.

Among others, Cipla, Bajaj Auto, Sesa Sterlite, Tata Power, Wipro, Hindalco, DRL and Hero MotoCorp gave support.

With the buying activity gathering momentum, second-line stocks continued their upward sprint. The BSE Small-cap and Mid-cap indices logged over one per cent rise each.

"Sentiment was so strong that even profit-taking at higher levels was absorbed", said a Delhi-based stock broker.

Coal India shares went ex-dividend today. Axis Bank, Airtel, M&M, Tata Motors, NTPC, HUL and ITC were among losers.

Meanwhile, Foreign Portfolio Investors bought shares worth net Rs 424.79 crore yesterday as per provisional data.

Sectorwise, the BSE Oil & Gas index gained the most by surging 2.21 per cent, followed by IT index with a gain of 1.45 per cent. Healthcare index rose by 1.33 per cent, Capital Goods index by 0.37 per cent, FMCG index by 0.30 per cent and Power index by 0.26 per cent.