BENGALURU: India’s benchmark indexes hit fresh all-time highs on Thursday as strong domestic data lifted heavyweight financial stocks amid a global rally.

The Nifty 50 index rose 0.57% to 21,778.70 points, while the S&P BSE Sensex advanced 0.52% to 72,410.38 points.

The 50-member Nifty index has now hit a record high in 13 of 19 sessions in December. It gained over 8% so far in the month, on track for its best month since July 2022.

The country’s financial sub-indexes, such as banks , private banks, public sector banks and top-weighted financials, rose between 0.3% and 1% after a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report on Wednesday showed that Indian banks’ gross non-performing asset (GNPA) ratio continued to improve in the second quarter of the current financial year.

HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries gained 0.1% and 0.7% each.