Sensex, Nifty soar to lifetime highs as Samvat 2077 gets off to bright start

Mumbai: Domestic equity benchmarks surged to lifetime highs on Saturday as investors built up fresh positions in the special Muhurat trading session to mark the beginning of Hindu Samvat year 2077.

The 30-share BSE Sensex soared 194.98 points or 0.45 per cent to close at a record 43,637.98. Intra-day, it hit its all-time high of 43,830.93.

On similar lines, the broader NSE Nifty advanced 60.30 points, or 0.47 per cent, to finish at its lifetime high of 12,780.25. It touched an intra-day record of 12,828.70 during the session.

In the Sensex kitty, prominent gainers were Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finserv, ITC, Infosys, HDFC Bank and ONGC, spurting up to 1.17 per cent.

Only four constituents closed in the red - PowerGrid, Titan, UltraTech Cement and Bajaj Finance, which shed up to 0.32 per cent.

Brokers said buying activity gathered momentum as investors opened their new books on the first session of Samvat 2077.

All BSE sectoral indices finished in the green, led by oil and gas, telecom, industrials, realty, tech and energy.

A similar trend was seen in the broader markets, with the BSE small-cap index jumping 0.84 per cent and the mid-cap gauge gaining 0.62 per cent.

Domestic markets conduct a special one-hour Muhurat trading session on Diwali every year to mark the beginning of the traditional Hindu calendar year, called 'Vikram Samvat'.

In the previous Samvat 2076, the BSE Sensex gained 4,384.94 points or 11.22 per cent, while the Nifty rallied 1,136.05 points or 9.80 per cent.

The BSE and NSE will remain closed on Monday (November 16) on the occasion of 'Diwali Balipratipada'.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 1,935.92 crore on Friday, while domestic institutional investors sold to the tune of Rs 2,462.42 crore, as per provisional exchange data.