Sensex zooms 506 points to hit record closing of 44,655; Nifty settles above 13,100

NEW DELHI: Equity indices continued to surge on Tuesday with the benchmark BSE sensex rising nearly 450 points led by gains in banking, IT and realty stocks.
After touching a lifetime intra-day high of 44,731, the 30-share BSE index surged 506 points or 1.15 per cent to close at 44,655; while the broader NSE Nifty settled 140 points or 1.08 per cent higher at 13,109.
Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, Tech Mahindra, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, Infosys and ICICI Bank were the top gainers in the sensex pack rising as much as 5.51 per cent.
While Kotak Bank, Nestle India, Titan, Bajaj Finance and HDFC Bank were the top losers falling up to 1.39 per cent.
On the NSE platform, sub-indices Nifty Realty, PSU Bank, IT and Pharma gained up to 3.33 per cent.
The stock indexes had closed out November with gains of more than 11 per cent each, driven by record inflows from foreign institutional investors and news on progress in Covid-19 vaccines.
Equity markets were closed on Monday for Guru Nanak Jayanti.
India's economy recovered faster than expected in the September quarter as a pick-up in manufacturing helped GDP (gross domestic product) clock a lower contraction of 7.5 per cent, official data showed on Friday.
However, the output of eight core infrastructure sectors dropped by 2.5 per cent in October, mainly due to decline in production of crude oil, natural gas, refinery products and steel.
"India's GDP data has positively surprised markets, there are signs of recovery in key sectors," Gaurav Garg, head of research at CapitalVia Global Research told news agency Reuters.
"Most of the impact of vaccine-related news has been incorporated by markets, which we saw in the rally in November," Garg said, adding that markets could consolidate in coming days.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors remained net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 7,712.98 crore on a net basis on Friday, according to provisional exchange data.
(With agency inputs)