Markets ended at record highs for the third straight session today on sustained foreign inflows and persistent buying by retail investors buoyed by the early onset of monsoon and encouraging quarterly earnings.
The benchmark BSE Sensex ended at a new closing peak of 30,658.77, up 76.17 points or 0.25 per cent and the NSE index Nifty gained 13.50 points or 0.14 per cent to a record 9,525.75.
Among BSE sectoral indices, metal index was the star-performer and was up 2.37 per cent, followed by auto 0.57 per cent, capital goods 0.22 per cent and power 0.14 per cent. On the other hand, consumer durables index was down 0.76 per cent, oil & gas 0.37 per cent, healthcare 0.3 per cent and PSU 0.23 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were Tata Steel (+7.95%), Tata Motors (+2.82%), ICICI Bank (+2.35%), TCS (+0.99%) and Asian Paints (+0.88%), while the major losers were Wipro (-1.7%), Adani Ports (-1.4%), Cipla (-0.94%), HDFC (-0.89%) and GAIL (-0.56%).
Shares of Tata Steel rallied as the quarterly loss narrowed and as the company agreed to the main terms of a deal for a pension scheme for its British workers.
Asian shares
US share futures and the dollar tumbled in Asian trade on Wednesday after reports President Donald Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to end a probe into Trump's former national security advisor.
The reports raised questions over whether obstruction of justice charges could be laid against Trump, weakening confidence in the US president's ability to push through an aggressive stimulus programme that investors had been banking on since his election last November.
S&P 500 mini futures, the world's most liquid stock futures, dropped 0.5 per cent in early Asian trade.
The S&P 500 and the Dow ended Tuesday's session flat after mixed economic data and retail earnings, while the Nasdaq had another record close with help from technology stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 2.19 points, or 0.01 per cent, to 20,979.75, and the S&P 500 lost 1.65 points, or 0.07 per cent, to 2,400.67, easing from an intraday record high of 2,405.77.
The Nasdaq Composite added 20.20 points, or 0.33 percent, to 6,169.87, a record close for the index.