Sensex ends at record high

After six days of correction, bulls made a strong comeback on Dalal Street on expiry day, helping the Sensex end at a record closing high on Thursday.

While the Sensex zoomed 448.39 points (1.48%) to close at 30,750.03, the Nifty 50 ended above the 9,500-mark, up 149.20 points (1.59%) at 9,509.75.

“Both, the benchmark Sensex and the Nifty opened the day on a positive note. However, a bout of intense buying interest in late afternoon trade propelled the markets higher and pushed them to close with gains of over 1%. The minutes from the US central bank’s May 2-3 policy meeting may have had something to do with the sudden spurt of enthusiasm in the markets,” BNP Paribas Mutual Fund senior fund manager — equities Karthikraj Lakshmanan said.

 Bank index was the top gainer on the NSE ending up 2.9% followed by PSU Bank index, IT index, Infra index, Auto index and metal index.

Advances outnumbered declines nearly 3:1 on the NSE with 1,237 out of 1,757 securities advancing, 424 declining and 96 remaining unchanged. A total of 21 securities hit new 52 week highs, while 71 securities hit new 52 week lows on the NSE.

Larsen & Toubro was the top gainer on the NSE, ending up 4.78% at Rs 1,765 with volumes of over 36.03 lakh shares. Some of the other gainers included Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, ACC, HDFC Bank, Eicher Motors, Infosys and State Bank of India. Pharma companies led the list of losers on the NSE.