Bull Run: Sensex scales 60K peak; realty, IT stocks rally (Roundup)

Mumbai, Sep 24 (IANS) India's stock market bull run propelled the benchmark equity index S&P BSE Sensex above the 60,000-mark milestone on Friday with the last 5,000 points coming in just 42 days.

Overall, it took took Sensex 246 days to accumulate the last 10,000 points.

The 30-scrip sensitive index crossed the milestone just after the pre-open session on the back of a rally driven by large caps with many index heavyweights touching their respective highs.

The Sensex opened at 60,158.76 points from its previous close of 59,885.36 points. Similarly, NSE Nifty50 traded above the 17,900-mark, but failed to reach the 18,000-level.

In terms of sector, realty, IT, media and telecom indices were the best performers since May 18, 2021, while auto, pharma and metal indices rose the least.

Amongst the BSE 200 stocks, JSW Energy, Mindtree, IRCTC and Mphasis have risen more than 100 per cent over this period.

LTI, LTTS, Godrej Properties and Zee Ent are the other large gainers.

The market cap of all the listed companies clubbed together crossed Rs 250 lakh crore.

In the day's tarde, realty, telecom and IT indices rose the most, whereas power, metals, consumer durables, and healthcare indices fell the most.

Globally, shares were on the edge on Friday, hurt by persistent uncertainty around the fate of debt-ridden Chinese real estate major Evergrande, even as increased risk appetite drove US stocks and treasury yields higher.

At the end of Friday's trade session, the Sensex gave up some early gains but managed to end on a positive note.

Consequently, the Sensex closed above 60,000 points for the first time ever at 60,048.47, higher by 163.11 points or 0.27 per cent from its previous close.

The NSE Nifty50 closed at 17,853.20 points, higher by 30.25 points or 0.17 per cent from its previous close.

"Nifty is now close to 18,000 and once that round number is achieved, we could see a broad-based correction in the markets," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.

According to Siddhartha Khemka, Head, Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services: "Domestic sentiments are buoyant as economic recovery is happening faster than expected, which is well-reflected in improving macro-data points. In addition, strong liquidity, falling Covid-19 cases, healthy vaccination drive, upbeat corporate commentaries and low cost of capital too provided support to this rally.

"However, the valuations have reached stratospheric levels, especially for a lot of the desired high quality names across sectors. Thus, bottom-up stock picking approach is becoming difficult for the investors."

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said: "Weak global market did not affect the upside momentum of the domestic market which hit record highs boosted by realty and IT stocks. India is seizing a sweet spot in the global equity market with the increase in domestic investors.

"However, profit-booking was noticeable in mid and small cap stocks, which were under pressure and it can continue in the short term. Realty stocks continued to outperform the other sectors owing to an increase in property registrations and cut in stamp duty (Karnataka) and home loan rates."