Mumbai, Jan 8 (IANS) Healthy buying from foreign funds, along with optimism over the upcoming quarterly earnings result season, on Monday catapulted the key equity indices -- NSE Nifty50 and S&P BSE Sensex -- to their record closing highs.
Index-wise, the buoyant global cues lifted the wider Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) to close above the 10,600-points-level. It gained 64.75 points or 0.61 per cent to 10,623.60 points.
The Nifty50 touched a fresh intra-day high of 10,631.20 points.
The barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE too closed at a fresh high of 34,352.79 points -- up 198.94 points or 0.58 per cent from its previous close -- after it scaled a new intra-day high of 34,385.67 points.
The BSE market breadth was bullish as 1,792 stocks advanced compared to 1,158 declines.
"Markets rallied higher on Monday to close with gains for the fourth consecutive day. The Nifty touched record highs in intra day trade," Deepak Jasani, Head, Retail Research, HDFC Securities, told IANS.
"The rally came on the back of positive global cues," added Jasani.
Apart from key indices, even the broader market indices closed at fresh highs.
The S&P BSE mid-cap index closed higher by 0.98 per cent at a new high of 18,247.55 points. The small-cap index edged up 0.97 per cent to close at a record high of 19,895.77 points.
On the NSE, the Nifty50 mid-cap index edged higher by 1.19 per cent to close at a record high of 5,702.70 points.
"Asian shares ex-Japan traded towards all-time peaks on Monday after Wall Street posted its best start to a year in over a decade," Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls, told IANS.
On the currency front, the Indian rupee weakened by 14 paise to close at 63.51 against the US dollar from its previous close at 63.37.
Provisional data with the exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors purchased scrips worth Rs 692.83 crore, while the domestic institutional investors divested funds worth Rs 206.30 crore.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said: "Supportive global market and optimism ahead of earnings season took the market to a new high. A cut in FY18 GDP growth estimate by CSO did not impact the movement since it was overtly conservative."
"Revival in earnings, incremental Q-o-Q growth in GDP and budget expectations are sustaining the momentum," Nair added.
All the sub-indices of the BSE ended with substantial gains barring the telecom index which declined by 45.33 points.
Sectorwise, the S&P BSE capital goods index surged by 243.37 points, followed by healthcare index by 179.60 points and IT index by 157.03 points.
Major Sensex gainers on Monday were: Coal India, up 3.26 per cent at Rs 287.85; Infosys, up 2.33 per cent at Rs 1,035.65; Sun Pharma, up 2.28 per cent at Rs 591.95; Larsen and Toubro, up 1.80 per cent at Rs 1,338.10; and Hero MotoCorp, up 1.37 per cent at Rs 3,790.35.
Major Sensex losers were: Bharti Airtel, down 4.43 per cent at Rs 516.10; ONGC, down 0.28 per cent at Rs 197.15; State Bank of India, down 0.18 per cent at Rs 305.65; Tata Steel, down 0.18 per cent at Rs 768.95; and Adani Ports, down 0.07 per cent at Rs 424.15.
