Sensex hits all-time high after 5 yrs 10 months

Markets have sparked off the festive rally to touch new all-time highs. The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex hit an all time high after a period of 5 years and 10 months in early trades.  

The Sensex opened higher by 33 points at 21,198 mark and the Nifty declined by 6 points at 6,305 levels. Sensex had touched an intra-day high of 21,206.77 on Jan 10, 2008

US stocks finished lower on Thursday as the Federal Reserve's statement the day before added to investors' anxiety about the timing of a pullback in its stimulus program. While it was a second consecutive day of losses for the market, all three major indexes ended October with solid gains.

Dragging on the Dow and the S&P 500, Visa Inc lost 3.5% to $196.67 after the world's largest credit and debit card company reported a 28% drop in quarterly profit.

Asian shares sagged on Friday though upbeat signals on China's manufacturing activity limited losses, while the dollar pushed higher after upbeat US data led some investors to price-in a less dovish stance at the US Federal Reserve. China's manufacturing sector grew at the fastest in 18 months in October, with the official Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rising to 51.4 last month from September's 51.1, beating economists' consensus forecast of 51.2.

The final HSBC/Markit Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) came in at 50.9, up from 50.2 in September and unchanged from a preliminary flash estimate released last week.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell about 0.2%, while Australian shares gave up 0.2%, but still remained just shy of five-year highs. Japan's Nikkei stock average erased early gains and dropped 0.6%.

Back home, BSE Realty, Banks, Auto, Metal and IT indices are up 0.5-1.3%. However, BSE Consumer Durables index is down 1%.

Auto and bank shares were among the top gainers in the Sensex pack. Auto shares were up ahead of their October sales numbers. Hero MotoCorp, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki were up 0.4-2.3% each.

In the financial segment gainers include, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, HDFC and SBI.

Among other shares MCX was up over 3% after founder Jignesh Shah on Thursday quit the board of Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX).

In the mid-cap segment, IL&FS Transportation, Indian Bank, State of Bikaner, State Bank of Mysore and Torrent Pharma were among the top gainers.

The broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices. The market breadth in BSE remains positive with 725 shares advancing and 225 shares declining.