Mid-day market trade: Nifty near all-time high hit earlier today; heavyweights gain

Indian equity benchmarks after hitting fresh highs in early trade were holding on to their early gains in the mid-day trade. At the last count, Sensex was up by 0.7 per cent or 520.18 points at 78,573.7, while the Nifty 50 index was up 0.5 per cent or 119.65 points at 23,840.95 points. Meanwhile Bank Nifty also notched their fresh high today.

Within the Nifty 50 pack, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, UltraTech Cement, Kotak Mahindra Bank and ICICI Bank emerged as top gainers, while laggards from the basket included stocks like Hindalco, Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto, M&M and Apollo Hospitals.

Sectorally, auto, metal, realty and consumer durables traded with losses, while oil & gas and private banking stocks were leading the gains on the D-Street.

"A constant refrain during the last few months from many experienced investment experts has been that financials, particularly largecap private banks, offer value buying opportunities. The expected breakout in some of these bluechips has happened during the last several days. These stocks are likely to remain resilient since their FY25 Q1 numbers will be very good,” noted Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.