Sensex And Nifty Rise To Close At A Record High For Second Straight Day

Indian equity benchmarks rose modestly on Friday to close at a record high for the second day in a row after see-sawing through the session, marking the fourth straight day of gains driven by expectations the Federal Reserve would ease the pace of its aggressive tightening as as early as next month.

The BSE Sensex index rose 20.96 points to close at a new record high of 62,293.64, and the broader NSE Nifty index also ended at a new all-time high of 18,512.75, up 0.15 per cent, a day after both benchmarks had closed at a lifetime high.

The Sensex index also hit a record intra-day high of 62,447.73 on Friday, breaching its previous best of 62,245.43 in October last year.

With a 1.34 per cent increase, Reliance Industries led the Sensex index. Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, Maruti, Tata Steel, and Mahindra & Mahindra were also among the top gainers.

The main laggards, on the other hand, were Nestle, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, and HCL Technologies.

Both the benchmarks also marked gains for the fourth straight session on Friday.

The boost in risk sentiment came after Fed officials gave the markets a Thanksgiving treat in the form of minutes of their most recent policy meeting.

Still, the Fed minutes warned that a US recession in 2023 is “almost as likely as the baseline (forecast).”

For now, though, Asian markets were on course to chalk up their fourth straight weekly rise.

The MSCI Asia ex-Japan Index is expected to record its fourth straight weekly gain; So far in November, it has risen 14 per cent, marking its best month since March 2009.