Sensex crosses 30,000 points 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. It was trading up 40.20 points or 0.45 percent at 9,036.45 points.

The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 29,937.27 points, was trading at 29,773.18 points (at 12.15 p.m.), up 179.45 points or 0.61 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 29,699.71 points in the intra-day trade so far.

On Wednesday, the RBI reduced key lending rates by 25 basis points and said that it was expecting inflation to soften in the coming fiscal. However, it also expressed concerns over the postponement of 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, bank, auto, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and realty sectors.

However, metal, oil and gas, information technology (IT), consumer durables and power stocks came under selling pressure.

The S&P BSE healthcare index was up 371.42 points, bank index was higher by 125.80 points, automobile index gained 100.37 points, FMCG index rose 91.69 points and realty index augmented by 31.31 points.

However, metal index was down 60.35 points, followed by oil and gas index which was lower by 44.20 points, IT index fell 27.96 points, onsumer durables index decreased by 10.40 points and power index slipped 4.13 points.