Sensex, Nifty climb new record highs in opening trade; tech stocks rise

New Delhi: Markets scaled new highs in opening deals on Wednesday amidst positive global trends.

The BSE Sensex surged 324.22 points or 0.70 percent to trade at 46,587.39; while the NSE barometer Nifty climbed 89.10  points or 0.66 percent to 13,656.95 in early deals, record highs for both benchmarks.

Major gainers in the Sensex pack were M&M, Asian Paint, ONGC, Tata Steel, HDFC, Nestle, Maruti, HDFC Bank, Ultrachem, Axis Bank, Titan and Powergrid, rising upto 2.86 percent. On the other hand, major losers were Tech Mahindra, HUL, Bharti Airtel and HCL Tech, falling upto 0.59 percent.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were net buyers in the capital markets as they purchased shares worth Rs 2,484.09 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

Equity benchmark Sensex recovered from early losses to end marginally up at its new closing record on Tuesday, led by gains in index majors HDFC twins. The 30-share BSE index ended 9.71 points or 0.02 per cent higher at 46,263.17. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty rose 9.70 points or 0.05 per cent to close at its fresh all-time high of 13,567.85.

S&P Global Ratings on Tuesday raised India's growth projection for the current fiscal to (-) 7.7 per cent from (-) 9 per cent estimated earlier on rising demand and falling COVID-19 infection rates Retail inflation declined to 6.93 per cent in November on softer food prices, though it remained above the comfort level of the Reserve Bank, official data showed.

Among Asian peers, MSCI`s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside of Japan added 0.6% after two straight days of losses. Australian and New Zealand shares jumped over 1% each while South Korea`s KOSPI and Japan`s Nikkei were each up about 0.3%. Chinese shares started firm with the blue-chip CSI 300 index adding 0.25%. Hong Kong`s Hang Seng index climbed 0.8%, a Reuters report said.