Mumbai, Jul 13 (PTI): Breaking boundaries, the benchmark Sensex breached the 32,000 mark for the first time and the NSE Nifty hit a new peak of 9,879 today on strong buzz that a policy rate cut may be on the anvil after inflation touched a "record low".

A positive lead from Asia after US Federal Reserve chief indicated a gradual approach to raising US interest rates made investors here go in for fresh bets.

The 30-share index zoomed 215.60 points, or 0.67 per cent, to hit a new peak of 32,020.42, surpassing previous intra-day record of 31,885.11 reached on July 11.

The gauge had rallied 444.18 points in the previous three sessions.

The stock of the largest IT exporter TCS was trading 0.65 per cent higher ahead of its earnings today.

All the sectoral indices, led by FMCG, capital goods, power, metal, banking and auto, were trading in the positive zone, with gains of up to 1.06 per cent.

Shattering records, the 50-share NSE Nifty too rose 62.40 points, or 0.63 per cent, to hit a new life high of 9,878.50. It had touched an intra-day record high of 9,830.05 on July 11.

There are renewed hopes of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank at its policy meet next month after retail inflation hit a historically low level of 1.54 per cent in June and industrial output growth slumped to 1.7 per cent in May.

Prominent gainers in the Sensex kitty were ICICI Bank, ITC Ltd, L&T and Sun Pharma, gaining by up to 1.69 per cent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.15 per cent while Japan's Nikkei was up 0.15 per cent in early session. Shanghai Composite was up 0.33 per cent.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 0.57 per cent to close at a record yesterday.