Sensex jumps to fresh high; Nifty crosses 15,900, IT, auto stocks under selling pressure

Sensex rises 139.54 pts to 53,064.58 in the opening session; Nifty advances 33.05 pts to 15,893.40.  It touched a lifetime intra-day peak of 15,915.65 in the opening session. 

On the Nifty50 index, ONGC, Cipla, RIL, SBI and IndusInd Bank were the top gainers while HDFC Life TCS, Bajaj Auto, L&T and MAruti led the losses. Broader markets were also higher with the midcap and smallcap indices up 0.3 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.

It touched a lifetime intra-day peak of 15,915.65 in the opening session.

Asian Paints was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising over 1 percent, followed by Dr Reddy's, NTPC, Axis Bank, Sun Pharma, Kotak Bank, ICICI Bank and Reliance Industries.

On the other hand, Titan, TCS, UltraTech Cement, Bharti Airtel and L&T were among the laggards.

In the previous session, the 30-share index Sensex closed 226.04 points or 0.43 per cent higher at record 52,925.04, and Nifty advanced 69.90 points or 0.44 percent to 15,860.35.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they offloaded shares worth Rs 678.84 crore on Friday, as per provisional exchange data.

According to Binod Modi Head-Strategy at Reliance Securities, domestic markets look modestly good as of now.

A sharp fall in daily caseload and satisfactory ramp up in vaccination process overshadowed concerns emerging from higher crude prices and weakening rupee,? he said, adding that better-than-expected 4QFY21 earnings performance of companies has also supported the market's uptick.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo were trading with losses in mid-session deals.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.17 percent lower at USD 75.25 per barrel.