NEW DELHI, July 13 (Xinhua) -- India's equity benchmark index BSE Sensex Thursday hit record highs, crossing the 32,000 mark for the first time ever.
The National Stock Exchange Nifty also hit a new life-time high of 9,886 due, all to a sharp drop in retail inflation and buzz of a rate cut by the central bank.
Barring oil and gas, all other sectoral indices were trading in the positive zone. The top five Sensex gainers were consumer goods company ITC and private banks such as ICICI Bank, HDFC and Axis Bank.
India's Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian has once again pitched for a Reserve Bank rate cut, urging policymakers to "reflect" on this historically low inflation data "very very carefully."
"This low, heartening number (of 1.54 percent in June) is consistent with our analysis for some time now -- and which will be fully elaborated in the forthcoming Survey -- of a paradigm shift in the inflationary process to low levels of inflation," he said on Twitter.
Economists expect the Reserve Bank of India to lower rates by 25 basis points at its forthcoming policy review meet next month.
"Given the current inflation trajectory we reiterate our call of a 25 basis points rate cut in August policy," Shubhada Rao, chief economist at Yes Bank, told the media.
