Stock market today: Domestic equity benchmarks raced to fresh highs on Friday boosted by gains across sectors in a rally where IT, financial, oil & gas and metal shares were the biggest contributors. Dalal Street took positive cues from global markets in a week full of major central bank decisions, after the Fed set the tone for market expectations about sooner-than-anticipated reductions in benchmark interest rates.The Nifty index ended 273.95 points or 1.29 per cent higher at 21,456.65 and the Sensex finished the day 969.55 points or 1.37 per cent stronger at 71,483.75, both record closing highs, after each staged a spectacular rally to life-time highs during the session. The 50-scrip barometer crossed the 21,400 mark for the first time ever in intraday trade.

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The high-beta Nifty Bank index, whose 12 constituents include SBI, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, finished the day 411.25 points or 0.86 per cent higher at a record 48,143.55. Amid broad market indices, Nifty SmallCap 100 ended 0.71 per cent higher whereas Nifty MidCap 100 closed with gains of 0.11 per cent.

Nifty IT finised jumped 4.56 per cent or 1,559.1 points at 35,782.45 aided by buying in all ten IT stocks. HCL Tech, TCS, Infosys and SBI were among the top gainers in the Nifty basket, closing with gains of around 2-4 per cent. On the other hand, HDFC Life, Nestle India, SBI Life and Bharti Airtel were among the top losers.

"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," Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said.

"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," he said.

Global markets

Energy and miners led European shares higher on the final day of a week marked by major central bank policy decisions. The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.4 per cent at the last count, on track for its fifth straight weekly advance since April.Both miners and energy stocks rose more than 1 per cent, leading sectoral gains for the day. For the week, real estate stocks were the top gainers, while telecommunication took the worst hit.

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