Nifty scales another peak of 11,470, up 20 points

The NSE benchmark Nifty today hit a new closing high of 11,470.70, rising by 20.70 points on hectic buying mainly in banking sector stocks.

Sentiments were firm following International Monetary Fund (IMF) pegging India's economic growth at 7.5 per cent for the 2019-20 fiscal.

Gains in rupee, lower crude and unabated buying by foreign institutional investors also supported the market to hit record highs.

Asian equities too closed higher with China ending over a per cent higher.

However, European markets fell as investors turned cautious of intensifying trade war tensions between the US and China.

Developments around corporate earnings also kept investors on their feet.

The Nifty 50 index rose 20.70 points, or 0.18 per cent, to end at 11,470.70, its record closing high. The index rose 45.20 points to hit the day's high of 11,495.20.

It witnessed an intra-day movement of about 41.10 points.

Sector-wise, PSU rose by 2.98 per cent followed by realty 2.08 per cent, metal 1.39 per cent, private bank 1.01 per cent, bank 0.92 per cent, financial service 0.58 per cent, FMCG 0.24 per cent and energy 0.05 per cent.

While, pharma eased by 0.62 per cent, media 0.17 per cent, auto 0.07 per cent and IT 0.03 per cent.

Major index gainers were Axis Bank, ICICI bank, Hindalco, SBIN, Vedanta, Powergrid, UltraTech Cement and Tata Steel.

Index losers included Bharti Airtel, Titan, ONGC, Cipla, UPL, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Zeel, Grasim, Tech Mahindra and Larsen.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market turned gainers. On the NSE, 924 shares advanced and 882 declined, while 85 remained unchanged.

Total securities that hit their price bands were 215.

Turnover in the cash segment rose to Rs 34,903.22 crore from Rs 31,854.34 crore as on Wednesday.

A total of 20,071.48 lakh shares changed hands in 1,13,97,787 trades. The market capitalisation of listed firms on the NSE stood at Rs 1,53,69,688.14 crore.