Sensex closes above 80,000-mark for first time, Nifty ends at new high

In the intraday trades, the Sensex rose to 80,392.64 and the Nifty to 24,401.

“Benchmark Sensex steadily pared gains after scaling new life-time high in early trades, but managed to close above the 80,000-mark for the first time due to selective buying in banking and IT stocks,” Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd.

The defensive bet on large caps like IT and pharma gained momentum due to the diminishing US inflationary pressure, improvement in quarter on quarter earnings outlook and a resultant sharp fall in the US 10 year bond yield, said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

The buoyancy in government spending and the green shoots in corporate earnings are now supporting the premium valuation. Return of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) to the domestic market and expectation of a rate cut in September are supporting market sentiment,” Nair said.

On Thursday, foreign portfolio investors net bought Rs 2,575.85 crore of Indian shares as compared to a purchase of Rs 5,483.63 crore on Wednesday. Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) offloaded Rs 2,375.18 crore worth of equities, as against Rs 924.43 sold on Wednesday.

Among the NSE firms, the companies that gained the most included Tata Motors (2.75 per cent), HCL Technologies (2.63 per cent), ICICI Bank (2.53 per cent), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (1.83 per cent) and Tata Consultancy Services (1.38 per cent).