Closing Bell: Sensex jumps 500 points, closes at record high; Nifty up over 150 points

The Indian equity benchmark indices scaled record highs during the session Thursday and closed almost a percent higher led by buying across the sectors.

The 30-scrip Sensex closed at a record high of 57,852, as it rose 514 points and the Nifty50 index surged 158 points to end at 17,234. The broader markets supported the rally as both mid-caps and small-caps rallied a percent higher. Mid-cap index also closed at a record high of 28,916.

The Nifty hit an intra-day life high of 17,246 during the session. The market breadth favours the advances, with two stocks rising for every one stock that slipped.

Among the 50 stocks on Nifty, Shree Cement, HDFC Life, Cipla, TCS, and Hindustan Unilever lead the gains, as each scrip rose over 2.5 to 6 percent higher. Leading the losses were Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Auto, ONGC, Divi's Lab, and Tata Motors. Eight stocks hit fresh highs in the session today. The shares of Reliance Industries Limited hit Rs 2,300 per share for the first time since October 2020.

Among sectors on NSE, a strong rally was seen in IT, FMCG, pharma, realty and metal indices, while Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Auto indices ended in the red. The FMCG index closed at a record high of 40,292 as the stocks posted healthy gains. However, auto stocks were under pressure due to chip shortage concerns.

Globally, record-high world stocks slowed their charge as concerns grew over the Chinese economy after a run of soft data. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.1 percent from a five-week high. Japan's Nikkei added 0.3 percent, and Hong Kong's battered tech index enjoyed the fourth day of unbroken gains.

Nasdaq futures and S&P 500 futures were starting to creep up too, having risen again on Wednesday despite some late wobbles.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index crawled up 0.3 percent supported by travel, oil, car and chemicals companies.

Over in commodities, oil prices edged higher supported by a sharp decline in the US crude stocks and a weaker dollar. However, gains were capped by an OPEC+ decision to stick to its policy of only gradual increases to output.

Oil prices edged higher on Thursday, supported by a sharp decline in U.S. crude stocks and a weaker dollar, though gains were capped by an OPEC+ decision to stick to its policy of only gradual increases to output.

Both Brent crude and US oil were nearly half a percent higher trading at $71.89 and $68.87, respectively.