Sensex crosses 30,000-mark; Nifty touches record high

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex), Wednesday touched a new record high of 30,024.74 points as India's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, cut its key lending rates by 25 basis points, expecting inflation to soften further in the coming fiscal.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also touched an intra-day record high of 9,119.20 points. However, it was later trading 2.60 points or 0.03 percent down at 8,993.65 points.

The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 29,937.27 points, was trading at 29,668.07 points (at 2.30 p.m.) up 74.34 points or 0.25 percent from the previous day's close at 29,593.73 points.

The Sensex had touched a high of 30,024.74 points and a low of 29,662.35 points in the intra-day trade so far.

Earlier on Wednesday, the RBI reduced key lending rates by 25 basis points and said it was expecting inflation to soften in the coming fiscal. However, it also expressed concern over the postponement of the fiscal consolidation target by a year.

In its monetary policy statement of Jan 15, 2015, the Reserve Bank had reduced the repo rate by 25 basis point. However, it maintained interest rate stance in its sixth bi-monthly monetary policy statement of Feb 3.

The RBI that time said it was awaiting more data on inflation and signals from the national budget.

In Wednesday's trade, healthy buying was observed in healthcare, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), capital goods, automobile and realty sectors.

However, metal, information technology (IT), oil and gas, technology, entertainment and media (TECK) and power stocks came under selling pressure.

The S&P BSE healthcare index was up 366.77 points, FMCG index was higher by 153.85 points, capital goods index gained 93.01 points, automobile index rose 66.37 points and realty index augmented by 19.10 points.

However, metal index was down 138.31 points, followed by IT index which was lower by 130.11 points, oil and gas index fell 52.53 points, TECK index decreased by 46.16 points and power index slipped 1.51 points.