Nifty hits an all-time high

Mumbai, May 3

Equity benchmark indices climbed in early trade on Friday, with the Nifty reaching its fresh all-time peak, following a rally in shares of Bajaj Finance and positive trends from the US markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 470.92 points to 75,082.03 in early trade. The NSE Nifty climbed 139.5 points to hit a record peak of 22,787.70.

From the Sensex basket, Bajaj Finance jumped 6 per cent, while Bajaj Finserv climbed nearly 5 per cent.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lifted restrictions on Bajaj Finance on sanctioning and disbursal of loans through eCOM and Insta EMI Card, the company said in a regulatory on Thursday.

In November last year, the central bank had directed Bajaj Finance to stop sanction and disbursal of loans under its two lending products — eCOM and Insta EMI Card — due to the company’s non-adherence to the extant provisions of digital lending guidelines.

NTPC, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel and JSW Steel were the other major gainers.

Bharti Airtel, Maruti, Asian Paints and Larsen & Toubro were among the laggards.

In Asian markets, Seoul and Hong Kong were trading in the positive territory while Shanghai quoted lower.

Wall Street ended with gains on Thursday.