Sensex tops 33,954, Nifty just 8 points away from 10,500; Infosys shares hit 52-week high

S&P BSE Sensex was away 46 points from hitting 34,000 while NSE Nifty was just short off 8 points from kissing 10,500 level for the first time ever on Friday. India’s stock markets edged up higher in the mid-morning trade after opening almost flat in the early session today. Blue-chip shares of Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India, Wipro, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank and Reliance Industries inched up and were among the top gainers of Sensex. The benchmark Sensex made a top of 33,954.57 today, rising by 198.29 points and was just 45.43 points from hitting 34,000-mark while the broader Nifty 50 rose 52.05 points to hit the day’s high of 10,492.35. In the morning session, BSE Sensex gained 12.19 points to start at 33,768.47 and NSE Nifty inched up 17 points to open at 10,457.3.

Shares of India’s second largest IT company Infosys hit a 52-week high on Friday, rising by 2.22% to Rs 1,044.8 on NSE while the stock rose 2.21% to hit a respective 52-week high of Rs 1,044.2 on BSE. Infosys now commands a market capitalisation of Rs 2,37,669.89 crore at a price of Rs 1,035 on BSE.

All the sectoral indices of National Stock Exchange traded higher with Nifty IT and Nifty PSU Bank index leading the charge except Nifty Metal. Shares of Bharti Airtel (up 1.98%), TCS (up 2.09%), ONGC (up 1.7%), State Bank of India (up 1.34%), Infosys (up 1.32%), Maruti Suzuki (up 1.15%), Wipro (up 0.64%), Tata Motors (up 0.92%), ICICI Bank (up 0.7%), Axis Bank (up 0.86%) and Reliance Industries (up 0.54%) traded higher whereas Coal India, Tata Steel, Dr Reddy’s, Power Grid (), IndusInd Bank (), Hero MotoCorp () emerged as the major laggards. The heavyweight stocks of companies such as Infosys, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Bharti Airtel, Maruti Suzuki, ONGC, Tata Consultancy Services contributed heavily to the Sensex upsurge. Collectively these eight stocks alone added about 136 points while a downtick in Tata Steel and Coal India capped further gains.

The major gainers among ‘A’ group of Bombay Stock Exchange were Polaris, HCC, Network 18, IL&FS Transmission, Adani Power while major losers were Unitech, IFCI and RCom. Among the broad market indices of National Stock Exchange, Nifty Next 50, Nifty 100, Nifty 200, Nifty 500 gained in the range of 0.3-0.4% while Nifty Midcap 50 rose 0.8% and India Vix index shed 1.96%. Shares of Axis Bank, Reliance Infrastructure, TVS Motors, Reliance Capital, Maruti Suzuki were the volume toppers as per data available on Bombay Stock Exchange.