Markets extend rally for seventh week; Sensex crosses 71,000 for first time, closes nearly 1000 points up

Indian benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty rallied for the seventh straight week and surged to a record high on Friday. Sensex surged 969 points or 1.37% to close at 71,483 while Nifty50 settled 1.29% or 273 points higher at 21,456.

Share Market performance

Bank Nifty also for the first time breached 48,200 level on Friday during the last leg of the trade. The index settled 0.86% or 411 at 48,143

"The buoyancy continued in the market as investors were expecting the clouds over US economic growth to recede by H2CY24 and that the economy would achieve a soft landing aided by normalization in monetary policy. The USD/INR witnessed a steep fall on account of the prospects of interest rates being cut next year. The IT index outperformed expectations of a rise in demand in the US economy", said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.

The gainers on Friday include Infosys Ltd., Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Reliance Industries Ltd., State Bank of India, and HCL Technologies added positively to the indices while Bharti Airtel Ltd., ITC Ltd., Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., HDFC Life Insurance Ltd., and Maruti Suzuki Ltd weighed on the indices.

This week, all sectors advanced with IT sector emerging as the top gainer with 7.16% weekly gains. The broader markets underperformed as the BSE MidCap rose 0.17%, while the BSE SmallCap was 0.25% higher. Six out of the 20 sectors compiled by the BSE advanced, while 14 declined.