Sensex zooms over 350 pts to hit 60K for first time; Nifty crosses 17,900

Equity benchmark Sensex rallied over 350 points to hit the 60,000-mark for the first time in opening trade on Friday, led by strong gains in index majors Infosys, HDFC Bank and TCS.

The 30-share Sensex was trading 359.29 points or 0.60 per cent higher at its lifetime high of 60,244.65. Similarly, Nifty soared 100.40 points or 0.56 per cent to its intra-day record of 17,923.35 in initial deals.

It took little over 31 years for the Sensex to traverse from 1,000 points to the historic 60,000 level.

The benchmark index was at 1,000 points back on July 25, 1990 and took nearly 25 years before it touched the 30,000 mark on March 4, 2015.

The Sensex has climbed from the 30,000 level to 60,000 in little over six years, reflecting the overall bullishness in the market.

Infosys was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising over 2 per cent, followed by L&T, HCL Tech, Asian Paints, TCS, Tech Mahindra and HDFC Bank.

On the other hand, NTPC, HUL, Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv were among the laggards.

In the previous session, the 30-share index zoomed 958.03 points or 1.63 per cent to end at an all-time high of 59,885.36, and Nifty soared 276.30 points or 1.57 per cent to its new closing high of 17,822.95.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 357.93 crore on Thursday, as per provisional exchange data.

"Sensex has hit the 60,000-mark today. Reaching this milestone is quite an achievement in these COVID times and a shot in the arm for bulls that are in total control of this market," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

The outperformance of India during September so far is stunning with MSCI World Index down 2.13 per cent and Nifty up by 4.03 per cent, he said, adding that the poor performance of the Shanghai Composite due to regulatory crackdown and the China Plus One policy have again made India an attractive investment destination for FIIs.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Seoul and Hong Kong were trading with losses in mid-session deals, while Tokyo was positive.

US equities ended with gains in the overnight session.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude rose 0.09 per cent to USD 77.32 per barrel.