India's Sensex breaches 60,000 level as pandemic fears fade

India's benchmark Sensex stock index registered its quickest 10,000-point run to breach the 60,000 level on Friday, outperforming regional peers on flush liquidity and on hopes of a vigorous economic recovery from pandemic troughs.

The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index (.NSEI) ended 0.17 per cent higher at 17,853.2, and the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) rose 0.27 per cent to 60,048.47. Both indexes hit record highs earlier in the session.

It took the Sensex just 166 sessions to gain its latest 10,000 points, compared with the 414 sessions it took to cover the previous 10,000.

The pace of gains "shows the impact of return of FPIs (foreign portfolio investments) and local investors continuing to invest despite headwinds that cropped up time and again," said Dhiraj Relli, managing director and chief executive at HDFC Securities.

Each 10,000 milestone represents a smaller proportional gain for the Sensex. The index, which dates to 1986, first touched the 10,000 mark in 2006. India's benchmark Sensex stock index registered its quickest 10,000-point run to breach the 60,000 level on Friday, outperforming regional peers on flush liquidity and on hopes of a vigorous economic recovery from pandemic troughs.

The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index (.NSEI) ended 0.17 per cent higher at 17,853.2, and the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) rose 0.27 per cent to 60,048.47. Both indexes hit record highs earlier in the session.

It took the Sensex just 166 sessions to gain its latest 10,000 points, compared with the 414 sessions it took to cover the previous 10,000. The pace of gains "shows the impact of return of FPIs (foreign portfolio investments) and local investors continuing to invest despite headwinds that cropped up time and again," said Dhiraj Relli, managing director and chief executive at HDFC Securities.