Sensex rises 447 points to hit record closing of 45,080 after RBI raises GDP forecast; Nifty above 13,250

NEW DELHI: Equity indices finished higher on Friday with the benchmark BSE sensex breaching the 45,000-mark for first time ever, led by gains in banking, financial and FMCG stocks, after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that the Indian economy was recovering faster than expected.
After scaling an all-time high of 45,128, the 30-share BSE index surged 447 points or 1 per cent to close at fresh peak of 45,080; while, the broader NSE Nifty settled 125 points or 0.95 per cent higher at 13,259.
Top gainers in the sensex pack included ICICI Bank, Ultra Cemco, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, SBI and L&T with their shares rising as much as 4.20 per cent.
While Reliance, Bajaj Finserv, HCL Tech, HDFC and NTPC were the only losers falling up to 0.86 per cent.
On the NSE platform, all sub-indices finished in green with Nifty Bank, Private Bank, FMCG and Metal gaining as much as 2.05 per cent.
Announcing its policy decision for the month of December, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das said India's prospects have brightened with progress on Covid-19 vaccines, consumer confidence has turned positive and projected real GDP (gross domestic product) for the current financial year to contract just 7.5 per cent from 9.5 per cent projected earlier.
The six-member monetary policy committee voted unanimously to keep policy repo rates unchanged at 4 per cent while maintaining status quo for third time in a row. It also expects the economy to record positive growth in the second half of the current financial year.

Das said the GDP is expected to turn positive in the third quarter and expand at 0.1 per cent. The last quarter is likely to see an expansion of 0.7 per cent. Hence, the growth in second half of the fiscal is expected to show a positive growth.
In its October monetary policy statement, RBI had said the real GDP growth in 2020-21 is expected to be negative at (-) 9.5 per cent, with risks tilted to the downside (-) 9.8 per cent in Q2 2020-21; (-) 5.6 per cent in Q3; and 0.5 per cent in Q4.
"RBI has been extremely proactive in terms of providing support to the economy and to the market in whichever way possible," Avneesh Sukhija, senior financial analyst at BNP Paribas India told news agency Reuters.
Today's decision marks a continuation from October's decision of entering a revival mode from survival, Sukhija added.
Including today's session, the benchmark indexes have hit record highs for 11 of the last 18 sessions, boosted by progress in developing a working coronavirus vaccine. They added more than 11% in November on record inflows from foreign institutional investors.
(With agency inputs)