Mumbai: Breaking boundaries, the benchmark Sensex breached the 32,000 mark for the first time and the NSE Nifty hit a new peak of 9,879 on Thursday on strong buzz that a policy rate cut may be on the anvil after inflation touched a “record low”. A positive lead from Asia after US Federal Reserve chief indicated a gradual approach to raising US interest rates made investors go in for fresh bets. The 30-share index zoomed 215.60 points, or 0.67%, to hit a new peak of 32,020.42, surpassing previous intra-day record of 31,885.11 reached on 11 July. The gauge had rallied 444.18 points in the previous three sessions. The stock of the largest IT exporter TCS was trading 0.65% higher ahead of its earnings.

All the sectoral indices, led by FMCG, capital goods, power, metal, banking and auto, were trading in the positive zone, with gains of up to 1.06%. Shattering records, the 50-share NSE Nifty too rose 62.40 points, or 0.63%, to hit a new lifetime high of 9,878.50. It had touched an intra-day record high of 9,830.05 on 11 July.

There are renewed hopes of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its policy meet next month after retail inflation hit a historically low level of 1.54% in June and industrial output growth slumped to 1.7% in May. Prominent gainers in the Sensex kitty were ICICI Bank, ITC Ltd, L&T and Sun Pharma, gaining by up to 1.69%. Here are the latest updates

■ 10.40am: BSE Sensex trades higher by 233 points, or 0.73%, to 32,038, while the Nifty 50 rises 67 points, or 0.69%, to 9,883. Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and capital goods stocks trade higher. BSE FMCG index rises by 1.23%, while BSE capital goods index soars by 1.15%.

■ 9.31am: BSE Sensex trades higher by 207 points, or 0.65%, to 32,012, while the Nifty 50 rises 60 points, or 0.61%, to 9,876.

■ 9.25am: Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) rose 5% to Rs374.40. The government is close to finalising the structure of a deal in which Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC) will acquire 51.1% stake in HPCL. Cabinet approval for the deal is expected in a few weeks.

■ 9.20am: Sintex Industries Ltd rose 9% to Rs32 after Morgan Stanley France SAS has bought 3.57 million shares in the company via block deal on Wednesday, according to NSE Block deal data.

■ 9.15am: The rupee opened at 64.39 a dollar. At 9.15am, the rupee was trading at 64.42 a dollar, up 0.19% from its Wednesday’s close of 64.59.

■ 9.10am: The 10-year bond yield was at 6.435%, a level last seen on 21 June, compared to its previous close of 6.485%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

■ 9.05am: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Ltd rose 1.1% to Rs2,466.50 ahead of its June quarter earnings due later on Thursday. According to 20 Bloomberg analysts, the company may post a net profit of Rs6,203.50 crore, while net sales will be at Rs29,571 crore.

■ 9.00am: South Korean won was up 0.76%, Taiwan dollar 0.53%, Philippines peso 0.31%, Indonesian rupiah 0.27%, Japanese yen 0.15%, Malaysian ringgit 0.11%, China offshore 0.11%, China renminbi 0.08% and Singapore dollar 0.07%.

Source:livemint.com