Sensex closes above 50K mark led by pharma, financials

The bull roar continued at bourses on Wednesday with equity benchmark indices closing at record high peaks and exuberance over the Union Budget led to hopes of economic recovery among investors.

At the closing bell, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 458 points or 0.92 per cent at 50,256 while the Nifty 50 advanced by 142 points or 0.97 per cent to 14,790.

Most sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the positive terrain with Nifty pharma gaining by 2.8 per cent, PSU bank by 2.6 per cent and metal by 1.7 per cent.

Among stocks, Dr Reddy's gained by 3.9 per cent to Rs 4,661 per share while Cipla moved up by 3.7 per cent to Rs 852.25. Sun Pharma closed 3.1 per cent higher at Rs 628.55 per share.

IndusInd Bank edged higher by 7.3 per cent to Rs 1,046.80 per share. The other major gainers were Power Grid Corporation, Coal India, Hero MotoCorp, IndianOil Corporation and NTPC which moved up by over 3 per cent each.

However, those which lost were Shree Cement, UltraTech Cement, Grasim, UPL, ITC, Nestle India, Asian Paints, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Tata Consultancy Services.

Meanwhile, Asian shares rose as governments around the world looked poised to boost spending to help economies recover from the coronavirus and vaccine roll-out programmes accelerated.

Japan's Nikkei added 1 per cent while shares in Seoul rose by 1.06 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up by 0.2 per cent but Shanghai composite fell by 0.12 per cent.

( With inputs from ANI )