Nifty scales 47 pts to record high as bank stocks surge

The benchmark Nifty climbed 47.95 points to register a new peak at 9,359.90 following spurt in banking stocks after government cleared ordinance to tackle mounting bad loans and came up with a new steel policy.
Opening gap-up, the key indices skipped the initial weak choppy momentum to rally smartly during afternoon trade and gradually ended with good gains.
The 50-share barometer opened gap-up at 9,360.95 and hovered in the range of 9,365.65 and 9,323.25 before ending a life-time highs at 9,359.90, showing a gain of 47.95 points, or 0.51 per cent.
(The previous record closing is 9,351.85 was marked on April 26).

Country's largest private lender ICICI Bank surged 9.18 per cent driven by a five-fold jump in its March quarter profit.
Asian markets ended mixed after the US Federal Reserve indicated it remains on track to deliver two more rate increases by year-end.

European markets were trading higher supported by corporate earnings.
Nifty PSU Bank spiked 3.42 per cent, followed by Pvt. Bank 2.02 per cent, Bank 1.85 per cent, Fin service 1.53 per cent, FMCG 1.13 per cent, Infra 0.57 per cent and Consumption 0.45 per cent.
The broader mid-cap and small-cap also gained by 0.56 per cent and 0.50 per cent respectively.

Meanwhile, Nifty Realty fell 0.87 per cent, Media lost 0.83 per cent, Metal 0.79 per cent and Auto and Energy both 0.60 per cent each.
Major index gainers were ICICI Bank 9.18 per cent, Grasim 3.88 per cent, Adani Port 3.66 per cent, Axis Bank 3.59 per cent and Bank of Baroda 3.27 per cent.
Notable losers include, Hindalco 2.33 per cent, Tata Motor 2.26 per cent, HCL Tech 2.05 per cent, IOC 1.41 per cent and Indusindbk 1.27 per cent.
A total of 863 shares advanced and 825 declined while 77 ruled steady.
Total securities that hit their price bands were 105.

Turnover in the cash segment jumped to Rs 27,632.43 crore, from Rs 25,272.96 crore yesterday.
A total of 13,775.07 lakh shares changed hands in 9,492,302 trades. The market capitalisation of listed firms stood at Rs 12,379,109 crore.