Mid-day market trade: Equity indices trade firm after scaling fresh highs; banking stocks support

Amid positive global cues, after a positive start, Indian equity benchmarks hit their fresh record highs led by buying in banking and financial services stocks. In the mid-day trade, Sensex after notching a fresh peak of 77,956.67 traded higher by 0.74 per cent or 575 points at 77,916.34, while the Nifty 50 index traded up by 0.56 per cent or 132.8 points at 23,670.65. The headline index earlier in the day scaled a fresh high of 23,692.25.

Meanwhile, Bank Nifty, the gauge of banking sector’s performance, also marked a fresh high, hitting 52,600.75 levels, gaining over 1.7 per cent.

Within the Nifty 50 pack, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Shriram Finance and L&T emerged as top gainers, while laggards from the basket included stocks like BPCL, Tata Steel, Eicher Motors, Coal India and ONGC.

Sectorally, barring IT, consumer durables and banking stocks, all sectors traded in the red, with Realty pack losing the most to the tune of over 2 per cent.

Broader markets, alongside, have also marked a new record high, with both Midcap and Smallcap indices hitting new highs in trade today.

Packaging, sugar and poultry stocks are seeing buying action, while OMCs, railway and paper stocks traded under pressure.

Shares of L&T traded higher by over 1 per cent as Morgan Stanley maintains ‘overweight’ rating on infra major.

Similarly, as Bernstein sees private banking lender HDFC Bank to regain its industry leading profitability in a few years, the stock is among the top Nifty gainers today.

Shares of Exide Batteries on the company’s commitment to capture a larger share of the rapidly expanding lithium-ion battery market hit an all-time high today.

Meanwhile, European markets traded weak as the investor sentiment weakened after the overnight sell-off on Wall Street. German DAX, at the last count, was down over 1 per cent