Sensex Ends At Record High, Soars 765 Points, Nifty Settles Above 16,900

The domestic markets surged to record highs on Monday, in line with global bourses, after the US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell indicated the US central bank could begin scaling back its bond buying program by year-end but did not give a firm timeline.

Comments by Jerome Powell spurred buying interest in equities across the world as concerns over tight liquidity conditions eased, analysts said. The Sensex soared as much as 834 points to hit an all-time high of 56,958.27 and Nifty 50 index surpassed its important psychological level of 17,900 for the first time.

The BSE Sensex advanced 765 points to close at record high of 56,889.76 and Nifty 50 index jumped 226 points to settle at 16,931.

At the Fed's annual Jackson Hole conference, Jerome Powell expressed caution about raising interest rates as the Fed tries to nurse the economy to full employment and would avoid chasing "transitory" inflation.

Following Mr Powell's speech, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed at record highs for the fourth time last week driven by stocks in technology, communications, consumer discretionary and financials.

"The texture of a breakout continuation formation suggests an uptrend wave is likely to continue in the near future. For the day traders, the support has shifted from 16,700 to 16,800- 16,850 levels. On the flipside, markets may take a temporary pause near 17,000-17,050 due to an extended rally while intraday charts suggest the market is in an overbought situation. 

As long as the index holds the 16,800 level, the uptrend formation could continue up to 17,000-17,050 levels, whereas on the downside, below the 16,800 level uptrend would be vulnerable," Shrikant Chouhan, executive vice president, equity technical research at Kotak Securities.

Back home, buying was visible across sectors as all the 19 sector gauges, barring the measure of information technology shares, ended higher, led by the S&P BSE Telecom index's over 3.5 per cent gain.

Banking, Financial Services, Energy, Healthcare, Utilities, Auto, Capital Goods, Consumer Durables, Metal, Oil & Gas and Power indices also advanced 1.5-2.5 per cent each.

Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed buying interest as the Nifty Midcap 100 index jumped nearly 2 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 1.5 per cent.

In the Nifty 50 index, 43 shares ended higher.

Bharti Airtel was top Nifty gainer; the stock rose 5 per cent to close at record high of ₹ 625 after its board approved fund raising plan of up to ₹ 21,000 crore via rights issue to existing shareholders. Bharti Airtel has priced rights issue at ₹ 535 a share, a discount of around 10 per cent to Friday's close of ₹ 595.15.

Divi's Labs, Axis Bank, Tata Steel, Coal India, Titan, ONGC, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India, Hindalco, Asian Paints, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors and Reliance Industries also rose 2-4 per cent.

On the flipside, Tech Mahindra, Nestle India, Eicher Motors, Infosys, Wipro, SBI Life and TCS were among the notable lowers.

The overall market breadth was extremely positive as 2,223 shares ended higher while 1,094 closed lower on the BSE.