Mumbai, July 30 (IANS) Domestic equity indices continued to set new benchmarks on Monday and settled at their record closing levels, supported by healthy quarterly earnings.
Earlier in the day, the BSE Sensex crossed the 37,500 mark for the first time and touched an all-time intra-day high of 37,533.50 points. The NSE Nifty50 also hit a fresh high of 11,328.10 points.
Index-wise, the wider Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at 11,319.55 points, higher by 41.20 points or 0.37 per cent from its previous close of 11,278.35 points.
The 30-scrip BSE Sensex, which had opened at 37,491.39 points, closed at 37,494.40 points, higher by 157.55 points or 0.42 per cent from its previous close of 37,336.85 points. It touched an intra-day low of 37,292.45 points.
In the broader markets, the S&P BSE mid-cap rose by 0.30 per cent and the S&P BSE small-cap ended 0.55 per cent higher from its previous close. The BSE market breadth was bullish with 1,606 advances and 1,057 declines.
"Carrying on from last week, markets continued to surge higher on Monday," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.
Globally, however, equity markets traded in the negative territory.
Major Asian markets closed on a negative note, barring the Jakarta index and the European indices like FTSE 100, CAC 40 and DAX also traded in the red.
On the currency front, the rupee closed at 68.68, depreciating by two paise from the previous close of 68.66 per dollar.
Investment-wise, provisional data with exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors sold scrip worth Rs 234.04 crore and the domestic institutional investors purchased stocks worth Rs 48.58 crore.
Sector-wise, the S&P BSE banking index gained the most, by 401.01 points, followed by the auto index, which rose by 119.11 points and the oil and gas index, up 112.79 points.
On the contrary, S&P BSE oil and gas index ended lower by 112.79 points, the capital goods index fell 40.34 points, Teck index (technology, entertainment and media) was down 18.38 points.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel, up 5.13 per cent at Rs 383.15; ICICI Bank, up 4.76 per cent at Rs 307.25; State Bank of India, up 3.75 per cent at Rs 297.35; and Axis Bank, up 2.67 per cent at Rs 568.45; Mahindra and Mahindra, up 2.52 per cent to Rs 932.70 per share.
The major losers were Infosys, down 1.56 per cent at Rs 1,353.15; HDFC Bank, down 1.41 per cent at Rs 2,172.25; Tata Motors (DVR), down 1.27 per cent at Rs 147.20; Larsen and Toubro, down 1.19 per cent at Rs 1,295.80; and Adani Ports, down 0.90 at Rs 390.70 per share.
