Nifty flies to record, Airtel leads from front

Riding on the tailwinds of strong IIP numbers, the Nifty today flew to a record close at 10,167 and the Sensex hit off an over two-month high as investors threw caution to winds and went ahead with more buying.

The rupee stood firm against the American currency, which fuelled the rally. The 50-share NSE index sprinted to 10,167.45 -- a fresh record -- up 71.05 points, or 0.70 per cent -- after scaling a new intra-day high of 10,191.90. It surpassed its previous record closing of 10,153.10 hit on September 18.

The 30-share BSE Sensex opened positive and settled the session higher by 250.47 points, or 0.78 per cent, at 32,432.69 -- its biggest closing since August 2. The gauge had shot up 348 points yesterday.

For the second straight week, both indices rose, with the Sensex adding 618.47 points, or 1.94 per cent -- the biggest such weekly jump since July 14 when it read 660.12 points, or 2.10 per cent -- and the NSE Nifty soared 187.75 points, or 1.88 per cent.

Industrial production expanded to a 9-month high of 4.3 per cent in August while retail inflation came in at 3.28 per cent in September, unchanged from August.

"Better IIP figures have given reasons for investors to resume buying, pushing behind fears of soft corporate numbers. IT results have also worked to this end, pushing indices to newer heights, adding to the crescendo of positive vibes ahead of the festive season," said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

With this rally, investor wealth swelled to Rs 138.19 lakh crore. The overall investor optimism rubbed off on broader markets as well, in the process lifting BSE small-cap and mid-cap indices.

Bharti Airtel was the big hitter, surging 7.89 per cent to Rs 431.60 as the company announced acquisition of Tata group's loss-making mobile telephony business, almost for free, boosting its spectrum holding and user base.

IT bellwether TCS firmed up 0.32 per cent to Rs 2,556.75 even even as the company's net profit fell 2.1 per cent in the September quarter. Reliance Industries climbed 0.48 per cent to end at a record high of Rs 876.70 on expectations of strong earnings from the conglomerate's core petrochemical business. The results are slated later for the day.

Tata Steel, Kotak Bank, Coal India, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank had a field day, surging by up to 2.86 per cent.

The BSE telecom index saw maximum buying, climbing 5.27 per cent, followed by banking, technology and metal indices. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) remained net buyers, picking up shares worth Rs 872.54 crore yesterday. However, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) gave up shares net Rs 668.13 crore, showed provisional data. While most Asian shares closed up, Europe showed a two- way trend in the early part.