The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex surged 123.78 points on Thursday to close at an all-time record high of 31,369.34, while the National Stock Exchange Nifty gained 36.95 points to end at 9,674.55 points. The rise in the Sensex was enabled by a recovery of the stock of state-owned lenders like State Bank of India, as well as hopes of positive quarterly earnings, reported Mint.

According to analysts, the market sentiment has recovered since June as the roll-out of the Goods and Services Tax appears to have taken place fairly smoothly. This has added to the hopes of improving corporate profits and stronger economic growth. “The overall mood in the market is quite positive and expectations of positive quarterly results are making investors make stock-specific moves,” said Deven Choksey, managing director, KR Choksey Investment Managers.

While SBI gained the most on the Sensex on Thursday, stocks of ITC, Coal India, Bharti Airtel and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd were the next four big gainers. The top loser at the BSE was Bajaj Auto, followed by Mahindra & Mahindra, Sun Pharma, Axis Bank and ONGC.

On the Nifty, SBI was the second biggest gainer. The top was Bharti Infratel. Indiabulls Housing Finance, ITC and Coal India made up the rest of the top five. The five companies whose stocks declined the most were Bajaj Auto, Eicher Motors, Hindalco, Indian Oil Corporation and Sun Pharma.

Meanwhile, the rupee declined by four paise to trade at 64.96 to the dollar, at 4.22 pm.

Contrary to the positive sentiment on the Indian markets, other Asian markets - except the Shanghai SE Composite Index - had a poor day, reported CNN Money. Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell by 87.57 points or 0.44%, while the Hong Kong Hang Seng plummeted 56.75 points. The Taiwan TSEC 50 Index also declined 36.59 points to close at 10,368.20.