The stock market rally continued on Thursday too as the domestic benchmark indices once again ended at record high levels on the back of positive global cues. The benchmark, 30-share BSE Sensex rallied today as much as 958 points to end at 59,885, inching closer to the 60,000-mark. The NSE Nifty50 was up 276.30 points or 1.57 per cent at 17,823.  

Bajaj Finserv, Hindalco Industries, Tata Motors, Larsen and Toubro and Coal India were among major gainers on the Nifty, while losers included HDFC Life, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Nestle India, ITC and Tata Consumer Products.   

The broader market outperformed the benchmarks as the BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices rose by 1 per cent each. On the sectoral front, realty index gained nearly 9 per cent, while IT, metal, bank, capital goods and oil and gas indices rose by 1 per cent each. 

The volatility index, India VIX, gained less than 1 per cent to end at 16.60 levels.

“This ferocious bull market continues to baffle both bears and bulls. Stock markets are all about ups and downs. But this bull market has been an almost one-way street for almost 18 months now. More importantly, this is almost a global phenomenon, with China, Hong Kong and a few other countries being the exceptions. The mother market US is leading from the front, ignoring even tapering indications from the Fed,” noted Geojit Financial Services Chief Investment Strategist V K Vijayakumar.

“Amateurish money of retail investors is now dominating over the smart money of institutional investors. This may change when FIIs turn into major sellers. We don’t know now when and what might trigger that. Taking some money off the table may not be a bad idea even while riding this bull,” Vijayakumar added.  

“Evergrande is due to pay $83.5 million worth of interest on a dollar-denominated bond on Thursday. It’s not clear yet whether the company will make that payment, and it had not commented by the close of trading in Hong Kong. Anything negative on this front could impact global sentiments,” cautioned HDFC Securities Retail Research Head Deepak Jasani.