Sensex breaches 81,000-mark, Nifty above 24,800 for first time led by IT stocks

Record breaking run for Indian equity benchmarks extended on Thursday with Nifty breaching 24,800 and Sensex crossing 81,000 levels for the first time on the back of steady foreign inflows, expectations of strong macroeconomic reforms in the upcoming budget on July 23 and strong start to the first quarter corporate earnings season.

The Sensex rose as much as 650 points to hit record high of 81,203.26 and Nifty climbed 134 points to hit record high of 24,746.

The Sensex and Nifty reversed early losses to hit record highs led by information technology stocks, after software services provider LTIMindtree posted a revenue beat in the June quarter.

The markets have been on a record-breaking streak for most part of this month as foreign institutional investors have so far this month bought shares worth Rs 24,058 crore, data from NSDL showed.

Most of the sectors were witnessing buying interest as eight of 13 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by Nifty IT index's 2 per cent gain. Nifty Bank, Financial Services, FMCG, and Private Bank indices also rose between 0.4-1 per cent.

On the other hand, media, metal, pharma and oil& gas shares were facing selling pressure.

Mid- and small-cap shares were underperforming their larger peers as Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 1 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index declined 0.82 per cent.

Shares of Infosys, India's second-largest IT services company, surged over 1 per cent to a new 52-week high of Rs 1,745.05 on the BSE ahead of its first-quarter earnings announcement later today.

Market participants expect that Infosys will meet street estimates, following strong earnings from its peers, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and HCL Technologies.

LTI Mindtree was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 3.3 per cent to Rs 5,745. Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, ONGC, Bajaj Finserv, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever and Shriram Finance also rose between 1.4-2.7 per cent.

On the flipside, Hero MotoCorp, Asian Paints, Coal India, Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel and Grasim were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was negative as 2,457 shares were declining while 1,386 were advancing on the BSE.