Sensex closes at all-time high, tech stocks lead rally

Mumbai, July 12: Indian equity benchmarks closed in the green following a rally in IT stocks on Friday.

At closing, the Sensex was 622 points or 0.78 per cent, at 80,519 and Nifty was 186 points or 0.77 per cent, at 24,502.

During the day, the Sensex and Nifty both made new all-time highs of 80,893 and 24,592 respectively.

The market was mainly driven by tech stocks.

The share price of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) surged to a high 6.6 per cent after being the first major IT firm to report its June quarter results for the financial year 2024-25 (FY25) on Thursday.

Other tech stocks, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys, and HCL Tech also showed positive momentum due to the result.

Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst, LKP Securities said, "The sentiment looks positive from here, as the indicators and popular overlays indicate a continuation of strength.

“Support is visible at 24,400. The buy-on-dips strategy should favour the street until Nifty falls below 24,400. On the higher end, the current rally might extend towards 24,800."

Trading in midcap and smallcap remained snubbed as compared to largecap.

The Nifty Midcap 100 index closed at 57,173, up 25 points or 0.04 per cent, and the Nifty Smallcap 100 index closed at 18,949, up 29 points or 0.16 per cent.

Apart from IT stocks, Pharma, FMCG, and energy index were top gainers.

PSU Bank, Realty, and PSE index were major laggards.

Vaibhav Vidwani, Research Analyst at Bonanza Portfolio said, "Inflation cooled more than expected. US CPI rose 3 per cent year-on-year in June 2024 versus a forecast of 3.1 per cent. This news made investors change their investment approach.

“The market is optimistic that this improvement in inflation could lead the Federal Reserve to start easing monetary policy by this September."