At the stock market, the bulls charged on the bourses as the Sensex hit a record high of 73,819, while the Nifty 50 touched 22,353 intraday.

The ride was faster than expected due to the expansion in the December quarter GDP, which lifted investor confidence. Notably, for the first time ever, the Nifty50 crossed 22,300 intraday, while the Nifty Bank touched 47,000 intraday.

Sensex hit record high and crossed the 73,700-mark. At close, the Sensex was up 1,245.05 points, or 1.72%, at 73,745.35, and the Nifty was up 356.00 points, or 1.62%, at 22,338.80.

Notably, for this week, the Sensex gained 0.8% and the Nifty added 0.5%. In the sector-wise analysis, the metal index was up 4%, while auto, bank, capital goods and oil & gas were up 2% each.

The healthcare index was down 1% and Information Technology index 0.5%. BSE midcap and smallcap indices added 0.5% each.

At the close, the biggest Nifty gainers were Tata Steel, L&T, JSW Steel, Titan Company and IndusInd Bank, while losers were Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Sun Pharma, HCL Technologies, Infosys and Britannia Industries.

The Nifty Bank index also surged 2.5% or 1,166 points to close at the 47,286.90-mark with IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank and SBI rising 3% each.

The Bank Nifty bulls maintained their dominance, leading the index to overcome significant hurdles with notable volumes.

On the gaining side were the shares of Tata Steel Ltd (up 6.89%), Larsen & Toubro Ltd (up 4.35%), JSW Steel Ltd (up 4.31%), Titan Company Ltd (up 3.77%) and IndusInd Bank Ltd (up 3.33%). Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd (down 3.65%), Infosys Ltd (down 1.20%), HCL Technologies Ltd (down 1.05%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (down 1.00%), Britannia Industries Ltd (down 0.95%) were on the down side at the market.

Action Construction, BF Investment, Castrol India, Genesys International, Grasim Industries, ICICI Bank, Indus Towers, Jindal Steel, Kalyani Steels, Kellton Technologies, M&M, Rico Auto, Swaraj Engines, Tata Investment Corporation, Tata Motors, Tata Motors DVR, Tata Steel, Themis Medicare, Torrent Pharma, TVS Motor, among others, witnessed their 52-week-high.

At the global level, the Asian stocks gained ahead of important inflation figures. In an index-wise analysis, the Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index rose 1.90% at 39,910.82 in Asian trade, while the Shanghai Composite index rose 0.39% to 3,027.02 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 0.47% to 16,589.44.

The S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.61% to 7,745.6, while the Kospi in South Korea dropped by 0.37% to 2,642.36. SET in Bangkok fell 0.24%.