Sensex hits 60K mark for first time, IT scrips zoom

Mumbai : Strong gains in IT and banking counters led equity benchmark indices to record new highs during early hours on Friday.

Market analysts said domestic sentiments are buoyant as demand is coming back to normalcy faster than expected.

At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 243 points or 0.41 per cent at 60,128 while the Nifty 50 gained by 65 points or 0.37 per cent to 17,888.

Sectoral indices were mixed with Nifty IT gaining by 2.2 per cent and realty by 1.4 per cent.

Among stocks, HCL Technologies surged 3.4 per cent to Rs 1,373 per share while Wipro moved up 2.3 per cent and Infosys by 2.1 per cent.

The other prominent winners were Asian Paints, Grasim, Bharti Airtel, Nestle India and Britannia.

However, metal stocks like JSW Steel, Tata Steel and Hindalco traded with a negative bias on profit booking.

Meanwhile, Asian shares were mixed. Japan’s Nikkei was up 2.03 per cent on easing woes over Evergrande crisis spilling beyond China.

Hong Kong shares and South Korea’s Kospi were at near-flat levels.