Mumbai: In volatile trade, the benchmark Sensex on Tuesday came off new life-time high of 25,711.11 hit in morning trade but managed to end with a slim 3.48-point rise at a fresh closing peak of 25,583.69 helped by rise in IT and pharma shares.
Tracking firm Asian trends, the BSE Sensex resumed strong and immediately improved further to a high of 25,711.11- a new historic intra-day high. This was on the back of sustained buying by foreign funds and retail investors after Narendra Modi-led government yesterday promised investor-friendly reforms and measures to revive country's economic growth.
Sensex, however, later succumbed to selling pressure to hit day's low of 25,347.33 on growing fears over monsoon. It later saw some recovery to end at a fresh closing peak of 25,583.69, up 3.48 points or 0.01 percent.
"In first half, profit taking in interest rate sensitive sectors kept the index under pressure; however, recovering in IT and Pharma space helped it to pare losses significantly by the end," said Jayant Manglik, President-retail distribution, Religare Securities.
This was its fourth successive positive closing. The gauge had gained nearly 775 points in the previous three days.
Yesterday, the 30-share index had hit previous lifetime high of 25,644.77 and ended at record closing of 25,580.21.
Similarly, the 50-issue NSE Nifty edged up by 1.80 points, or 0.02 percent, to register its an all-time high of 7,656.40. It hit an intra-trade life-time high of 7,683.20.
Shares from consumer durable, IT, teck and pharma sectors closed with gains while from realty, refinery, capital goods, power and metal finished with losses.
Cautious stance ahead of retail inflation for May and April factory output played on investor minds, say traders.
Bluechips like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HDFC, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, Cipla, Bharti Airtel, Dr Reddy's, HUL, Coal India and Maruti Suzuki were in demand. ONGC, SBI, L&T, Tata Steel, Axis Bank, RIL and Hero Moto suffered losses, among others.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 536.68 crore yesterday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
Asian stocks ended mixed with upward bias. Key benchmark indices in China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Taiwan closed with gains while those from Singapore and Japan settled down.
Barring the UK, other major European market indices were trading firm in their late morning deals. France's CAC was up 0.11 percent and Germany's DAX by 0.13 percent.
The next trigger for the domestic market will be the Union Budget for 2014-15.
Back home, 14 out of 30 Sensex-based counters ended in the green while others concluded in the red. Cipla was the top gainer with a rise of 2.76 percent, followed by Infosys 2.73 percent, Wipro 2.73 percent, TCS 1.98 percent, Coal India 1.78 percent, Dr Reddy's Lab 1.72 percent, Bharti Airtel 1.32 percent and Maruti Suzuki 1.27 percent.
Sun Pharma 1.25 percent, HUL 1.06 percent and Tata Motors 0.87 percent also notched up smart gains.
However, BHEL dropped by 2.87 percent, ONGC 2.74 percent, Tata Steel 2.60 percent, Hero MotoCorp 2.32 percent, Sesa Sterlite 2.29 percent, Axis Bank 1.56 percent, SBI 1.43 percent, NTPC 1.30 percent and Tata Power 1.06 percent, among others.
From the S&P BSE sectoral indices, Consumer Durables firmed up by 3.55 percent, IT 2.32 percent, Teck 1.98 percent and Healthcare 1.97 percent, among others.
However, Realty index fell by 2.96 percent, Oil&Gas 0.96 percent, Capital Goods 0.90 percent, Power 0.86 percent and Metal 0.85 percent, among others.
Total market breadth remained positive as 1,834 stocks closed with gains while 1,272 ended with losses. Total market turnover declined further to Rs 4,696.17 crore from Rs 4,884.72 crore yesterday.
