Stock market at new high after sluggish start; Sensex climbs 90 points, Nifty closes above 25400

The BSE Sensex of domestic stock market on Tuesday closed at a fresh all-time high, gaining about 91 points on hopes of interest rate cuts in the US. NSE Nifty too settled above the 25,400-level for the first time.

The market got support from strong global trends ahead of the much-awaited decision on interest rates by the US central bank Federal Reserve. Continuing the record-making spree for the second consecutive day, its 30-share BSE Sensex was up 90.88 points or 0.11 percent to close at an all-time high of 83,079.66.

It rose as much as 163.63 points or 0.19 per cent to 83,152.41 during the trade. NSE Nifty settled at a record 25,418.55, rising 34.80 points or 0.14 per cent.

The major winners among 30 Sensex companies were Bharti Airtel, NTPC, Mahindra & Mahindra, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Titan, Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, Hindustan Unilever and Reliance Industries.

On the other hand, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Adani Ports, JSW Steel, ITC and Asian Paints were in loss. In Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed with gains, while Japan's Nikkei closed with a decline. China's Shanghai Composite and South Korea's Kospi remained closed.

European markets were in the green during trade. US markets ended largely positive on Monday. Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services said, "The Indian market once again witnessed a marginal gain in anticipation of a cut in the policy rate by the US Federal Reserve. A quarter percent cut has been tagged as a given and everybody is keen about the Federal Reserve's comments on the health of the economy and further cuts.

The US Federal will announce monetary policy on Wednesday. Ajit Mishra, Senior Vice President- Research, Religare Broking Limited said that after a flat start, Nifty remained in a range-bound and realty and auto stocks recorded gains, while metal and pharma stocks plunged.

Prashant Tapase, Senior Vice President, said, "The market traded in a range-bound manner for the second successive session ahead of the US Fed policy meet decision that is scheduled to take place on Wednesday. Anant Chaturdashi resulted in low investor participation, hence buying was seen in selected major stocks, he added.

In line with easing retail inflation, wholesale inflation declined for the second successive month to 1.31 percent in August. According to government data released on Tuesday, because of the reduction in prices of vegetables, food items, and fuel, wholesale inflation has come down.

The BSE Smallcap index for small companies was down 0.13 percent and the Midcap index for medium companies was down 0.08 percent. Among sectors, realty was up 0.64 percent, telecom 0.46 percent, public-centric services companies 0.44 percent, technology 0.34 percent, automobile 0.33 percent and IT 0.11 percent. A fall was led in commodity, industrial, capital goods, metal, and service sectors. In the stock market data, foreign institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 1,634.98 crore on Monday, while Global oil benchmark Brent crude slipped 0.25 percent to $ 72.52 per barrel.