Nifty hits new record of 8,629.85; Sensex rallies 273 pts

The NSE Nifty today scaled a new peak of 8,629.85 and the BSE Sensex soared nearly 273 points in afternoon trade, led by a rally in metal, banking, realty, FMCG and oil & gas stocks.
The 50-issue index, after regaining the 8,600-level, rallied by 79.15 points, or 0.92 per cent, to trade at an all-time high of 8,629.85, surpassing its previous intra-day high of 8,626.95 touched on December 4.
Brokers said investor sentiments remained positive since the RBI's surprise rate cut last week coupled with encouraging Q3 numbers of some bluechip companies.
Major gainers which supported the Nifty to scale a life-time high were HDFC Ltd, Sesa Sterlite, Tata Steel, Hindalco, Jindal Steel & Power, ITC Ltd, Tata Motors, Axis Bank, SBI, Cipla, RIL, HDFC Bank, Infosys, Wipro, ICICI Bank, Coal India and Cairn India.

The benchmark BSE Sensex also climbed 272.71 points, or 0.96 per cent, to trade at 28,534.72, approaching towards its life-time high of 28,822.37, reached on November 28 last year.
The gauge had rallied over 915 points in previous three straight sessions.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 433.72 crore yesterday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
Globally, among other Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.75 per cent while Japan's Nikkei closed 2.07 per cent higher.