Equity benchmarks reversed their two-session slide to finish at fresh closing highs on Thursday, propelled by robust gains in market heavyweight Reliance Industries. Dovish comments from US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell also bolstered global investor sentiment, which augurs well for fund flows into emerging markets like India, analysts said. Overcoming bouts of mid-session volatility, the 30-share BSE index settled 222.13 points or 0.43% higher at its new closing peak of 51,531.52.
In similar movement, the broader NSE Nifty advanced 66.80 points or 0.44 per cent to its all-time high of 15,173.30.Reliance Industries was the star performer in the Sensex pack, rallying 4.07%, followed by Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finance, PowerGrid, Bharti Airtel, Nestle India and HUL.