Stocks set a record again as the Sensex on Wednesday went higher by 58 points to 31,805 and the Nifty closed above the 9,800 mark ahead of key macroeconomic data, lifted by banking, oil and gas and auto stocks.
Oil marketing companies soared on the back of higher crude oil prices. But investors were guarded ahead of release of index of industrial production (IIP) for May and consumer price (CPI) inflation for June post market hours.
The next triggers are a set of corporate quarterly earnings, which is going to kick off tomorrow with TCS. The BSE barometer closed at a new closing high of 31,804.82, up 57.73 points, or 0.18 per cent, as fag-end buying in heavyweights emerged. It had rallied 386.45 points in the previous two sessions. The 50-share Nifty ended up 30.05 points, or 0.31 per cent, at a new closing peak of 9,816.10. During the session, it shuttled between 9,824.95 and 9,787.70. Its previous closing high was 9,786.05 hit on Tuesday.
“Market started positively, but consolidated near its peak as investors took a wait and watch approach ahead of CPI and IIP data on Wednesday. Quarterly results and their impact to the current high valuation will be eagerly watched,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.
Reliance Industries, the biggest company by market capitalisation, rallied 1.02 per cent to hit a fresh nine-year high after its subsidiary Reliance Jio Tuesday unveiled new tariff plans. HUl led the gainers list in the Sensex heatmap by surging 2.04 per cent.
ONGC was up 1.59 per cent on reports that the proposed ONGC-HPCl deal will be completed by the end of 2017- 18. Other contributers were ICICI Bank, SBI, Tata Motors, PowerGrid and NTPC.