Indian stock indices at fresh peak, Sensex crosses 74,000 first time

New Delhi: Indian stock indices touched their fresh highs on Wednesday and settled firm, tracking firm cues from banking stocks and overall stable macro-economic parameters.

Sensex crossed 74,000 for the first time ever to settle at 74,085.99 points, up 408.86 points or 0.55 per cent. Nifty closed at 22,474.05 points, up 117.75 points or 0.53 per cent. Nifty bank and Nifty private bank were the top movers today, rising in the range of 0.8-0.9 per cent at closing.

"We expect Largecaps to drive the market in the near term while midcap and smallcap could remain under pressure. On Global front, US Fed Chair Powell's speech later tonight will be crucial as it will provide some insight into upcoming policy direction," said Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.

"Markets traded volatile for yet another session but ended with decent gains. The tone was negative in the first half, tracking weak global cues, however resilience in banking combined with sharp recovery in the IT and FMCG majors completely changed the mood as the day progressed," said Ajit Mishra, SVP - Technical Research, Religare Broking Ltd.

Foreign portfolio investors who had aggressively sold Indian stocks and turned net sellers in the Indian equity market in January 2024, now again became net buyers in February and March. This has also likely buoyed the stocks.

So far in March, they bought stocks in India worth Rs 6,139 crore, the latest data available from the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) showed.

Among specific stocks, RBI's action on JM Financial Products dragged JM Financial stock. The shares closed over 10 per cent lower.

On Tuesday, RBI directed JM Financial Products Limited (the company) to stop from any form of financing against shares and debentures, including sanction and disbursal of loans against Initial Public Offering (IPO) of shares as well as against subscription to debentures.

IIFL shares also extended losses and ended at 20 per cent lower circuit for second straight day. The lower circuit is the lower possible price that the stock of a firm can trade at on that particular session.

On Monday, RBI directed IIFL Finance Ltd (the company) to stop sanctioning or disbursing gold loans or assigning, securitising, or selling any of its gold loans.