Sensex, Nifty halve gains after hitting record highs; ITC, Vedanta top losers

Indian benchmark indices BSE Sensex and NSE's Nifty 50 surged to record highs on Thursday after early trends of elections results suggested Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party winning majority seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

At 12.05 PM, the Sensex was up 403.14 points or 1.03 percent, at 39,513.35,  while Nifty50 was up 112.55 points or 0.96 percent at 11,850.45.

Earlier in the day, the Sensex crossed the 40,000-mark and hit its all-time high of 40,124.96. The 50-share NSE index also touched the 12,000 level to a record high of 12,041.15.

Meanwhile, the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is poised for a stunning victory in the Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with what now looks like an unassailable lead of 341 seats — well above the halfway mark in Lok Sabha — as early trends poured in from various parts of the country.

Nifty PSU Bank was the best performing sector followed by Nifty Media, Nifty Bank while Nifty FMCG declined the most along with Nifty IT.

Adani Ports, IndusInd Bank, YES Bank, Zee Entertainment and BPCL were among the major gainers on the Nifty50, whereas ITC, Vedanta, Hindalco, TCS and Sun Pharma led losses.

Sensex and Nifty breached its record highs on Thursday ahead of the election results. Big gains were seen in the Nifty PSU Bank index, which emerged as the best-performing sector, and was trading higher by 7.22 percent at 3,383.50.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks declined on Thursday, as investors worried about the ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China. Shares of Huawei suppliers took a hit on Thursday amid the ongoing fallout.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.06 percent lower.