Nifty hits record high, Sensex jumps over 450 points boosted by financial stocks; Bajaj Finance shares skyrocket

Stock Market News Today: Domestic equity benchmarks made a strong start to the session on Friday with the Nifty50 scaling a fresh peak, led by strong buying interest in financial stocks after the RBI lifted certain restrictions on two of Bajaj Finance's lending products. Dalal Street took strong cues from global markets after the Fed ruled out interest rate hikes while indicating that the US central bank was leaning toward a dovish stance. 

Both headline indices rose as much as 0.6 per cent within the first few minutes of trade, with the Sensex gaining as much as 476.7 points to touch 75,087.84 on the upside and the Nifty50 climbing to a record 22,793.35, up 145.2 points from its previous close.  

At 9:21 am, the 30-scrip index was up 456.8 points at 75,067.9 while the broader, 50-stock gauge was at 22,777.3, up 129.1 points for the day. 

Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv, commonly known as the Bajaj twins, were the top blue-chip gainers, up around 5-6 per cent. Shriram Finance, NTPC, ONGC, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Auto were also among the top gainers, enjoying gains to the tune of 1.3-2.5 per cent. 

On the other hand, Adani Enterprises, Larsen & Toubro, Bharti Airtel, Tech Mahindra and HDFC Life, trading between 0.3 per cent and 0.9 per cent lower, were the worst hit among the 15 losers in the Nifty50 basket.

Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and NTPC were the biggest contributors to the rise in the Sensex. 

The high-beta Nifty Bank index was up 0.7 per cent while the Nifty Financial Services gauge was up 1.2 per cent. 

Overall market breadth was extremely positive, with an advance-decline ratio of 3:1 as 2,016 stocks rose while 651 declined on BSE. 

Global markets

Shares across Asia staged strong moves, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan trading 1.1 per cent higher at the last count. The Japanese market was shut for a holiday. 

Overnight on Wall Street, the three main gauges, the Dow Jones, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite, finished 0.8-1.1 per cent higher after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that interest rate hikes remain unlikely while recent inflation readings mean it will likely take longer than expected for policymakers to become comfortable that inflation will resume its decline. 

With inputs from agencies