Equity benchmarks clambered up to fresh lifetime highs on Wednesday, with the Sensex surging past the 54,000-mark for the first time, as stellar earnings whetted risk appetite amid supportive global cues.
Banking and finance stocks saw hectic buying after largest lender SBI reported a 55 per cent jump in standalone net profit at ` 6,504 crore for the June quarter, helped by a decline in bad loans.
Surging for the third straight session, the 30-share BSE Sensex rallied 546.41 points or 1.02 per cent to end at its new record of 54,369.77, bettering the previous session’s closing high. It scaled its lifetime peak of 54,465.91 during the session.
Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty surged 128.05 points or 0.79 per cent to its all-time peak of 16,246.85. It touched a lifetime intra-day high of 16,290.20.
HDFC was the top performer in the Sensex pack, surging 4.77 per cent, followed by Kotak Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank.
On the other hand, Titan, Nestle India, UltraTech Cement, Sun Pharma, Maruti and Bharti Airtel were among the laggards, dropping up to 2.14 per cent.
However, the market breadth was negative, with 16 Sensex stocks closing in the red, while 14 advanced.