Sensex, Nifty hit new peak; banking stocks soar

The BSE Sensex scaled another peak of 28,298.53 and the NSE Nifty climbed to new high 8,473.50 in late morning trade on a strong rally in select banking stocks following Kotak Mahindra Bank's acquisition of ING Vysya.
The benchmark BSE Sensex climbed 230.97 points, or 0.82 per cent, to trade at a new high of 28,298.53, breaking its previous record of 28,294.01 reached on November 19. It had gained 34.71 points in yesterday's trade.
On similar lines, the 50-issue Nifty gathered another 71.60 points, or 0.85 per cent, to hit new record of 8,473.50, surpassing its previous intra-day high of 8,455.65 touched on November 19.

Sentiment bolstered amid a firming trend at other Asian markets, brokers said, adding the announcement of acquisition of ING Vyasa by Kotak Mahindra Bank led to a rally in banking sector stocks.
Shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank continued its yesterday's rally, spurted by another 5.73 per cent to Rs 1,223.40. It had surged 7.28 per cent in the previous session.
Similarly, ING Vysya Bank stock, which had gained 7.15 per cent in the previous session, rose by another 2.04 per cent to Rs 830.80.

In line with overall trends, Axis Bank rose by 2.68 per cent, SBI by 3.03 per cent, HDFC Bank by 1.35 per cent and ICICI Bank by 2.48 per cent, helping key indices to hit new life-time highs.

Other gainers were Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, Cipla, BHEL, GAIL, Hero MotoCorp, Hindalco, ITC Ltd, L&T, M&M, RIL and NTPC.
Among other Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 0.19 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei went up 0.36 per cent in late afternoon trade.