Sensex trades at all-time high, Bharti Airtel and SBI top gainers

Mumbai, Sep 23 (IANS) Indian frontline indices were trading at an all-time high on Monday as heavyweights like Bharti Airtel, SBI and M&M were top gainers in the BSE's Benchmark.

In early trade, Sensex and Nifty made a new all-time high of 84,862 and 25,911 respectively.

At 9.46 a.m., Sensex was 259 points or 0.31 per cent at 84,803 and Nifty was 110 points or 0.43 per cent at 25,903.

Buying was also seen in the midcap and smallcap stocks. Nifty midcap was 305 points or 0.51 per cent at 60,514 and Nifty smallcap was 154 points or 0.80 per cent at 19,486.

Among all the sectoral indices, Auto, PSU Bank, fin service, metal, realty and oil & gas were top contributors. IT and Pvt Bank were top laggards.

In the Sensex, Bharti Airtel, M&M, SBI, NTPC, Ultratech Cement, Tata Steel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Titan, Nestle, Bajaj Finserv and HUL were top gainers. ICICI Bank, Wipro, HCL Tech, Infosys, IndusInd Bank and JSw Steel were the top losers.

Choice Broking said, "Asian markets traded higher on Monday, buoyed by continued optimism surrounding recent interest rate cuts. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) loosened monetary conditions by reducing its 14-day reverse repo rate. While this move provided a positive impetus, gains were tempered by the PBOC's recent decision to maintain its benchmark loan prime rate."

"Wall Street closed flat on Friday, hovering near the previous session's record-high close for the Dow and S&P 500, while the dollar firmed as investors digested the Federal Reserve's 50-basis-point cut midweek that started a rate-reducing cycle. Oil prices rose slightly in early trading on Monday, driven by worries that conflict in the Middle East could affect supply in this crucial production area, along with expectations that last week's US interest rate cut will bolster demand," the broking house said.As per provisional figures, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs)/ Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net of Rs 14,064.05 crore and Domestic institutional investors sold shares worth a net of Rs 4,427.08 crore on September 20.