Sensex tops 67,000 for first time, even profit-booking’s no dampener

The Sensex closed at a record 66,795, up 205.21 points, or 0.31%, from the previous record-high closing of 66,589. The index topped 67,007 in the late morning trade before paring some of its gains. The Nifty, too, made a fresh all-time closing high of 19,749, up 37.80 points or 0.19%. It scaled a new high of 19,819, beating Monday’s record of 19,731.

“Our markets are showing signs of strength, while investors are booking profit that is leading to mild intra-day correction instead of a closing correction,” said Siddarth Bhamre, research head, Religare Broking.

Bhamre remains bullish and advises clients to follow the positive trend as liquidity, especially foreign money, remains strong. “One should not be discouraged by purely looking at the valuations. There is this argument that valuations are premium but there are hardly any investment destinations in the world that offer the stability and growth momentum that India does,” he said.

On Tuesday, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) pumped in ₹2,115.84 crore in the cash segment, according to provisional data from the stock exchanges.

FPIs extended their string of stock purchases for the fourth straight day, and have cumulatively infused over ₹80,000 crore in the last four months, resulting in a 17% rally in the benchmark indices.

IT shares inched higher for the fourth day in a row amid hopes the US Federal Reserve and global central banks may be nearing the end of their aggressive rate hike cycle thereby reducing the risks of a global recession.On Monday, Goldman Sachs said it sees a lower chance of the US slipping into a recession over the next 12 months citing better-than-expected economic data that breathed confidence that bringing inflation down to an acceptable level will not require a recession.

The US investment bank now sees a 20% chance of the US slipping into a recession against the odds of 25% earlier.

At home, Infosys jumped nearly 4%, helping the Nifty IT index to gain over 1%.

Barring the IT, energy, and capital goods sectors, all other major sectoral indices ended weak. The market breadth was bearish, with 664 stocks rising against 1,140 stocks ending in the red.