An evening walk down Dalal Street

Looks like there’s no stopping the bulls. Not only are they in the driver’s seat for August 2018, they are ensuring that the car is in for a long drive.

They ensured that even after the Sensex clocked a fresh milestone of 38,000 on Thursday morning, it closed the day above this mark. The Nifty, too, wasn’t very far behind and ended at 11,470-mark. The levels are new all-time closing highs for both the indices.

It has been a rather ‘august’ performance by the market in 2018, with the indices having gained around a percent so far in this month.

Banks led the rally for equity benchmarks, with major gains coming in from PSU banks. The Bank Nifty ended around a percent higher.

Investors are possibly hopeful of stellar June quarter numbers from State Bank of India on Friday and hence placed big bets on the stock. This fuelled the upmove in banks in general. Additionally, buying counters were also buzzing in ICICI Bank and Axis Bank, which helped the market climb to new highs on Thursday.

Metals also offered some support to the market, with the Nifty Metal index ending over a percent higher. Gains in Vedanta boosted the index. A strong upmove was visible among midcaps as well, as the midcap index ended higher by over half a percent.

The day began on a strong note as the Sensex hit 38,000 in the opening tick, while the Nifty almost touched 11,500. The 50-share managed to hit an intraday high of 11,495.2. The rally in banks continued through the day, while pharmaceuticals took a U-turn after the upmove in the morning.

At the close of market hours, the Sensex ended up 136.81 points or 0.36% at 38024.37, while the Nifty closed higher by 21.60 points or 0.19% at 11471.60. The market breadth was, however, narrow as 1,336 shares advanced, against a decline of 1,327 shares, while 148 shares were unchanged.

ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and SBI were the top gainers, while Bharti Airtel, ONGC and Titan were the top losers. Shares of ONGC saw some profit booking post Wednesday’s move.