Nifty trades above 22,000 | Image:NSE

Nifty above 22,000: The Indian equity benchmarks surged to new record highs on Monday powered by gains in information technology heavyweights. The Nifty 50 index moved above 22,000 mark for the first time while Sensex traded above 73,000 level. The Sensex rose as much as 720 points to touch record high of  73,288.78 and Nifty 50 index touched an all-time high of 22,081.95, rising as much as 187 points.

As of 9:19 am, the Sensex was up 575 points at 73,144 and Nifty 50 index climbed 158 points to 22,052.

The rally in the stock market has been so swift that it took Nifty 20 sessions to move from 21,000 to 22,000 mark and 30 sessions to move from 20,000 mark to 22,000, data from the stock exchange showed.

The current record-breaking rally has been powered by surge in IT shares after they reported better than expected December quarter earnings. After surprise by TCS and Infosys on Thursday, Wipro reported better than expected revenue in December quarter which is considered as a seasonally weak quarter and highlighted early signs of a return to growth in client demand for its consulting services.

Wipro’s revenue of Rs 22,205 crore beat analysts’ average estimate of Rs 22,104 crore on the back of improved deal momentum. The company expects its March-quarter IT services revenue to range between $2.62 billion and $2.67 billion in constant currency terms.

HCL Technologies’ third-quarter net profit rose 6.2 per cent, to Rs 4,350 crore from a year earlier, surpassing analysts’ average estimate of Rs 4,151 crore, per LSEG data.

Revenue rose 6.5 per cent to Rs 28,446 crore, beating Street estimates of Rs 28,126 crore.

Shares of Wipro surged 10 per cent and HCL Technologies climbed 4 per cent.

Meanwhile, buying was visible across the board as 10 of thirteen sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the Nifty IT index’s 3.7 per cent gain. Nifty Bank, Financial Services, PSU Bank, Private Bank and Pharma indices also rose between 0.5-1 per cent.

On the other hand, select auto, metal and consumer durable shares were facing a mild selling pressure.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 and Smallcap 100 indices rose 0.5 per cent each.

Wipro with a gain of over 11 per cent was top Nifty gainer. Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, LTIMindtree, Infosys, TCS, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ONGC, Titan and Apollo Hospitals also rose between 0.7-7 per cent.

On the flipside, HDFC Life declined 3 per cent after its earnings failed to enthue investors. Tata Consumer Products dropped 2 per cent after it completed acquisition of Capital Foods and Organic India.

Eicher Motors, Hero MotoCorp, SBI Life, Bajaj Finance and Hindalco were also among the notable losers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,044 shares were advancing while 1,157 were declining on the BSE.