New Delhi: The benchmark Sensex and Nifty rebounded to close at their new lifetime highs on Friday after the Reserve Bank raised the growth forecast for the current fiscal year and kept policy rates unchanged, triggering heavy buying in banking and other rate-sensitive stocks.

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 303.91 points

The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 303.91 points, or 0.44 per cent, to hit its new peak of 69,825.60. The index touched the highest intraday level of 69,893.80.

The broader index Nifty also climbed 68.25 points or 0.33 per cent to reach a fresh record high of 20,969.40.

Among major Sensex movers, HCL Tech logged the biggest gain of 2.69 per cent, followed by JSW Steel (2.44 per cent) and Infosys (1.67 per cent). Other gainers included HDFC Bank, Titan, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank.

In contrast, ITC fell the most, by 1.95 per cent, Mahindra & Mahindra by 1.48 per cent and Bajaj Finance by 1.18 per cent.