Sensex smashes past historic 70,000 mark in morning trade

Mumbai, Dec 11 (IANS) The Sensex smashed past the 70,000 mark for the fast time ever to scale a historic high, while the Nifty 50 zoomed to a record 21,019.80 points in morning trade on Monday.

Both the indexes then lost part of their gains as pharma stocks fell due to the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) adverse comments on Dr. Reddy’s Labs after an inspection of the company’s facility at Bachupally in Hyderabad.

The BSE Sensex shot up 0.32 per cent to scale the 70,048 mark at around 10 a.m., and the NSE Nifty 50 index surged 0.24 per cent to go past 21,019 points in the morning peak.

Pharma stocks fell about 1 per cent, led by a 6 per cent decline in Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories after the FD issued its adverse report against the pharma major.

The stock was also the top loser on the Nifty 50 list.

The oil & gas segment was up 0.75 per cent, on the back of falling crude oil prices with Brent Crude futures have fallen to around $76.50 per barrel.

Since India imports over 80 per cent of its crude oil requirement the decline in prices has a positive impact on the oil companies as well as the economic fundamentals.

Public sector banks went up 1.6 per cent.

–IANS

pannu/ksk