Indian equities cheer cabinet decisions, Nifty at new closing high

Indian equity markets cheered the overnight decisions of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs with the NSE Nifty closing on Thursday at a record high level. The BSE Sensex, too, closed above the 30,000-mark.

The wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) rose by 47.95 points or 0.51 per cent to provisionally close at 9,359.90 points -- a new record.

The barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 30,069.72 points, provisionally closed at 30,126.21 points (at 3.30 p.m.) -- up 231.41 points or 0.77 per cent from its previous close at 29,894.80 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 30,169.95 points and a low of 30,007.40 points during the intra-day trade.

The BSE market breadth was marginally in favour of the bulls -- with 1,444 advances and 1,413 declines.

Banking stocks witnessed healthy buying and surged by 603.73 points or 2.39 per cent during intra-day trade, after the cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday night, approved an ordinance to amend the Banking Regulation Act to tackle the mounting non-performing assets (NPAs) of public sector banks.

On Wednesday, the benchmark indices closed on a flat-to-negative note on the back of negative global cues and outflow of foreign funds.

The NSE Nifty inched down by 1.85 points or 0.02 per cent to close at 9,311.95 points, while the BSE Sensex closed at 29,894.80 points -- down 26.38 points or 0.09 per cent.

--IANS

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