Nifty at a life-time high after US Fed hikes lending rate

Nifty at a life-time high after US Fed hikes lending rate

The Sensex rebounded by over 206 points and the NSE Nifty scaled a life-time high of 9,153 (rpt) in opening trade on Thursday amid a firming trend in global markets after the US Fed hiked the key lending rate. The Federal Reserve, as expected, raised the benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point, but gave a more dovish outlook for future hikes.

The rupee was in a sweet spot, strengthening by another 47 paise to hit a fresh 16-month high of 65.22 against the dollar. The 30-share index surged 206.40 points, or 0.70%, to 29,604.51. The gauge had shed 44.52 points in the previous session.

All the indices, led by metal, infrastructure and capital goods, advanced with gains up to 1.24%. The NSE index Nifty rallied by 68.10 points, or 0.74%, to trade at an all-time intra-day high of 9,152.90, breaching its previous record of 9,122.75 (intra-day) touched on Tuesday.

The buoyancy is in line with a firming trend at other Asian bourses, tracking overnight gains in the US, after the Federal Reserve went for a rate increase. Besides, a flood of foreign capital in domestic bourses gave a push to the equities, traders added. Japan's Nikkei, however, shed 0.13%. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.54% higher on Wednesday.