The Sensex and Nifty ended at record closing highs due to covering-up of pending short positions by speculators ahead of January derivatives expiry on Thursday.

Gains in banking and IT stocks offset losses in the energy and materials sectors. State-run lenders rose after a government spokesperson said on Twitter that India would soon unveil details of its bank recapitalisation plan.

The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended higher by 21.66 points or 0.06 per cent at 36,161.64 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty closed up by 2.3 points or 0.02 per cent at 11,086 . Both indexes posted record closes for the sixth straight session. Intra-day, the Sensex rallied to an all-time high of 36,268.19 and the Nifty hit 11,110.10.

Among BSE sectoral indices, IT index gained the most by 1.53 per cent, followed by PSU 1.13 per cent, FMCG 0.54 per cent and TECk 0.49 per cent. On the other hand, consumer durables index plunged 2.08 per cent, metal 1.5 per cent, capital goods 0.66 per cent and auto 0.65 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were State Bank of India (+3.62%), Adani Ports (+2.46%), TCS (+2.3%), ITC (+1.88%) and YES Bank (+1.66%), while the major losers were Bharti Airtel (-6.51%), Tata Motors (-3.46%), ICICI Bank (-2.6%), Tata Steel (-2.13%) and Axis Bank (-1.78%).

“Valuations of growth-oriented sectors are high, so broader focus is on defensive sectors like IT and pharma. After seeing some stabilisation in quarterly numbers, investors are shifting towards IT,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Since the last ten trading days were very positive, some kind of profit-booking can be seen just before the budget, Nair added.

The Nifty Pharma index rose for a fourth consecutive session, climbing as much as 0.5 per cent. Shares of telecom services providers also fell after Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd cut tariffs to counter bigger rival Bharti Airtel Ltd's revision in data plans.

Early trade

The BSE 30-share barometer dropped by 54.30 points or 0.15 per cent to 36,085.68 as heavyweights Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and Bharti Airtel declined. The gauge had rallied 1,368.93 points in the previous five back-to-back record-setting sessions on sustained foreign fund inflows. It had closed at a record high of 36,139.98 on Tuesday after touching an intra-day high of 36,170.83.

The NSE Nindex ifty index too retreated from record by falling by 26.45 points or 0.23 per cent to 11,057.25. On Tuesday, it had closed at record high of 11,083.70 points after scaling an all-time high (intra-day) of 11,092.90.

Asian shares

Asian share markets took a time out on Wednesday as investors were left breathless at the breakneck pace of recent gains, while a fresh burst of speculative selling took the US dollar to three-year lows.

Early Wednesday, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.2 per cent, having jumped 1.2 per cent on Tuesday to an all-time peak. Japan's Nikkei edged down 0.6 per cent as the yen strengthened, though that was from a 26-year top.

US stocks had advanced on Tuesday, as strong results from Netflix helped lift the S&P and Nasdaq Composite, but the Dow Industrials were hemmed in by declines in Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3.79 points or 0.01 per cent to 26,210.81, the S&P 500 gained 6.17 points or 0.22 per cent to 2,839.14 and the Nasdaq Composite added 52.26 points or 0.71 per cent to 7,460.29.

(With inputs from Agencies)

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