Sensex’s rapid rise: From 75,000 to 80,000 in just 58 sessions – a look at its journey so far

Reaching 80,000 on the Sensex is a historic milestone! The benchmark index hit this new peak for the first time ever on Wednesday, July 3. Remarkably, it took just 58 sessions, including a special live trading session on Saturday, May 18, to achieve this after reaching the 75,000 mark on April 9 this year.

The BSE Sensex hit a new high of 80,074.30, rising as much as 632.85 points in intra-day deals. Meanwhile, the Nifty also hit a new high of 24,307.25 in intraday deals today, gaining 183.4 points.

In June 2024 alone, the Sensex breached three significant levels. The benchmark index hit 77,000 on June 10, 78,000 on June 25, and climbed to 79,000 on June 27.

Prior to this, it took around 80 sessions, or less than four months, for the Sensex to rise from 70,000 to 75,000. The 70,000 mark was first crossed on December 14, 2023.

Today's rally was not limited to the benchmark indices alone, as evidenced by the Nifty Midcap 100 and the Nifty Smallcap 100 indices, both experiencing gains exceeding 0.5 percent.

The surge was boosted by a jump in banking and financial services indices. The Nifty Bank and Nifty Financial Services jumped around 2 percent each in intra-day deals. The Nifty Private Bank index also rose 2 percent while the PSU Bank index advanced 0.65 percent. Among other sectors, auto, metals, FMCG, pharma, and realty also witnessed robust buying activity.

"The focus of market activity today is HDFC Bank which will continue its upward move factoring in the news of potentially increasing the weightage of the stock in the MSCI Index. The delivery-based buying in the stock witnessed in the last many days has the potential to continue for a few more days pushing the stock further up and imparting resilience to it. As the weightage of HDFC Bank in Nifty increases there will be more delivery-based buying by ETFs and also active funds. There can be a marginal negative impact on other high weightage stocks in the Nifty like RIL, TCS, Infosys and ICICI Bank," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

The benchmark index has already gained 1.22 percent in the 3 sessions of July, extending gains after a 6.86 percent surge in June. Meanwhile, it fell 0.7 percent in May. Before that, the Sensex rose around 1-1.5 percent each in April, March and February. However, it fell 0.7 percent in January this year.

Going ahead, Vijayakumar believes that the latest Fedspeak on US inflation is also positive news for equity markets globally. Responding to the inflation print of 2.6 percent with zero month-on-month increase, Fed chief Powell yesterday made a dovish remark that the US is on a disinflationary path. The Fed’s next rate action is likely to be a rate cut. RBI also is likely to follow suit with a rate cut in the next policy meeting.

Sensex History

From its inception in January 1986 at approximately 550 points to 80,000 points in 2024, the Sensex has demonstrated remarkable resilience and growth. Despite experiencing significant downturns during events like the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020 pandemic, the index has consistently rebounded and achieved new highs.

The Sensex journey has seen significant milestones and fluctuations. Initially, it took over four years and 970 sessions to achieve its first 1,000-point rise in July 1990. The subsequent 1,000 points were gained in just 270 sessions. By October 1999, 13 years after its inception, the Sensex hit the first 5,000 mark. Then, in February 2006, over 6 years later, it crossed 10,000 for the first time, followed by 11,000, 12,000, and 13,000 within the same year.

Then, just over a year later, the Sensex reached 15,000 in September 2007 and hit 20,000 in December 2007, despite global financial turbulence. Post financial crisis, it took over 3 years, until November 2010, to gain the next 1,000 points, and then another four years to reach 22,000 in March 2014. The same year, the benchmark hit multiple milestones to surge to 28,000 by November. The 29,000 mark came quite quickly in January 2015 but then it took over two years to reach 30,000 in April 2017, followed by 34,000 in December. In January 2018, it quickly rose to 35,000 in just 16 sessions.

The Sensex then gained the next 5,000 points in 1.5 years to hit 40,000 in June 2019, pre-COVID. Despite the pandemic, it surged to 45,000 in another 1.5 years in December 2020 and it reached 50,000 by February 2021. By September 2021, the index had soared to 60,000. However, it took over 1.5 years to hit 65,000 in July 2023. Within the same month, it surpassed 66,000 and 67,000.

After crossing 67,000 in July 2023, it took nearly 93 sessions to reach 68,000 on December 4, 2023, and another day to hit 69,000. The milestones of 70,000, 71,000, and 72,000 were all achieved in December 2023. The index, then, continued its upward trend, reaching 73,000 on January 15, 2024, 74,000 on March 6, 2024, and 75,000 on April 9, 2024.

Post the 75k mark, the index breached its 76,000 mark in just over 1 month on May 27. Then in June, the Sensex crossed the 77,000 mark, 78,000 mark, and 79,000 mark, before finally crossing the 80k mark on July 3.