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Benchmark indices rallied for the third consecutive day logging fresh record highs intraday on the back of fresh buying in the financial & realty counters. In the intra-day trade, the index hit a record high of 52,177 levels. Nifty50, on the other hand, hit a record high of 15,327 levels

At end of trade, Sensex was up 609 points or 1.18% at 52,154, and the Nifty was up 151 points or 1% at 15,314.

ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, SBI, Bajaj Finserv, HDFC, IndusInd Bank, and HDFC Bank, all up between 2-4%. While losers were HDFC Life, SBI Life Insurance, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Hero MotoCorp and TCS.

Nifty Bank index rose 3.3%, while PSU Bank index added over 2.3%. BSE Realty index jumped 1.4 %, while Midcap and Smallcap indices rose 0.3-1.4%. While Nifty IT, Nifty Media, Nifty Metal & Nifty Pharma fell anywhere between 0.3-0.5%.

“Indian market opened on a positive following upbeat peer in Asia as Nikkei 225 crossed 30,000 for the first time in more than three decades with Japan’s economy growing 12.7 per cent on an annualised basis in October to December last year,” said Narendra Solanki, Head- Equity Research (Fundamental), Anand Rathi.

During the afternoon session, markets continued to trade higher as CPI data released during the weekend added to the positive sentiments, he added.

Economy

The rate of inflation, based on monthly Wholesale Price Index (WPI), stood at (2.03%) (provisional) for the month of January 2021 (over January 2020) as compared to 3.52% during the corresponding month of the previous year. All commodities index stood at 2.03% in January 2021 as against 1.22% in December 2020 and 2.29% in November 2020. Food index was at (0.26%) in January 2021 from 0.92% in December 2020 and 4.79% in November 2020.

India’s retail inflation, which is measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), eased to 4.06% in the month of January 2021. The retail inflation during the month of December 2020 was at 4.59%.

Separately, the country’s factory output, measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), witnessed a growth of 1% in December 2020, two separate data released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed on Friday. The IIP had grown 0.4% in December 2019, the data showed.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Tokyo and Seoul ended with strong gains.

Stock exchanges in Europe were also trading on a positive note in mid-session deals.

Meanwhile, the global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 1.30% higher at USD 63.24 per barrel.

(With inputs from PTI)