Sensex, Nifty scale new highs; bank stocks soar (Roundup)

Positive global and domestic cues led the two major indices of the Indian equities markets to scale new highs in Tuesday's trade session.

Bullish sentiments prevailed, a day after US and India reaffirmed to take the economic partnership further and announced key initiatives. Last week'sEuropean Central Bank (ECB) bond buying programme too had a positive effect on the markets.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) touched a new high of 29,618.59 points in the intra-day trade Tuesday -- surpassing its previous high of 29,408.73 points touched on Jan 23.

The Sensex closed the day's trade up 292.20 points or one percent at 29,571.04 points.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) too scaled a new high in the day's trade. It touched 8,925.05 points during the day's trade surpassing its previous record of 8,866.40 points reached on Jan 23.

It closed higher by 74.90 points or 0.85 percent at 8,910.50 points.

The S&P BSE Sensex which opened at 29,451.65 points closed the day's trade 29,571.04 points, up 292.20 points or 1.00 percent from the previous day's close at 29,278.84 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 29,618.59 points and a low of 29,286.09 points in the intra-day trade.

"Sensex ended at record high led by mainly banks. Strong global cues also aided the investor sentiment," said Sanjeev Zarbade, vice president, private client group research, Kotak Securities.

"Macroeconomic data is also turning increasingly positive on fiscal as well as external side, which is prompting foreign investors to take a positive view on India. Going ahead, important data points include GDP (gross domestic product) growth numbers for US and UK."

According to other market analysts, the Indian markets are well prepared to handle the next two major upcoming events, including the Greek vote and US Fed meet.

On the BSE, healthy buying was observed in banking, capital goods and automobile stocks, while information technology (IT), technology, entertainment and media (TECK) and metal scrip came under selling pressure.

The S&P BSE Bank index was up 527.76 points, followed by capital goods index which rose 312.95 points and automobile index which gained 249 points.

However, IT index was down 186.02 points, TECK index was lower by 66.28 points and metal index slipped by 62.97 points.

The major Sensex gainers were Axis Bank, up 4.83 percent at Rs.592.30; Cipla, up 4.62 percent at Rs.705.95; ICICI Bank, up 3.58 percent at Rs.383.70; ITC, up 3.01 percent at Rs.359.75; and HDFC Bank, up 2.98 percent at Rs.1,074.

The losers were Dr Reddy's Lab, down 4.01 percent at Rs.3,210.65; Infosys, down 3.53 percent at Rs.2,136; Mahindra and Mahindra, down 2.81 percent at Rs.1,322.05; Coal India, down 2.77 percent at Rs.383; and Hindustan Unilever, down 2.18 percent at Rs.941.60.