Sensex zooms to all-time high of 31,450

The BSE Sensex zoomed to all-time high of 31,450 in late morning trade.

Mumbai: The flagship Sensex on Thursday rallied 211 points to hit an all-time high of 31,494, lapping up a series of market-friendly measures taken by the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

Yesterday, the regulator Sebi relaxed entry norms for overseas investors, rationalised 'fit and proper' criteria as also simplified other requirements.

Sensex made a strong recovery of 136 points at opening on the back of a slew of steps by regulator Sebi to make markets more attractive for investments.

Asian cues remained mixed.

The 30-share index rebounded by 136.27 points, or 0.44 percent, to 31,419.91. Realty, metal, power and auto were in the positive zone, rising by up to 1.09 percent.

The gauge had lost 27.93 points in the previous two sessions.

The NSE Nifty also moved up by 33.85 points, or 0.35 percent, to 9,667.45.

Among a host of key decisions yesterday, Sebi relaxed its takeover norms for restructuring listed companies with stressed assets, which is expected to bolster efforts in fight against bad loans.

Some short covering helped stocks too bounce back.

Major contributors to the recovery were HDFC Ltd, PowerGrid, Asian Paints, Tata Motors, Tata Motors DVR, Sun Pharma and Axis Bank, gaining up to 1.37 percent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.18 percent while Shanghai Composite rose 0.72 percent in early trade today. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.10 percent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.27 percent down yesterday.

With PTI Inputs