Amid flat trade Sensex, Nifty settle at new record closing highs

The key Indian equity indices provisionally ended at fresh record closing levels on Tuesday with nominal gains amid a largely choppy trade.

The trade was tepid as traders booked profits after the indices hit record levels earlier in the day, analysts said. Both the S&P BSE Sensex and the Nifty 50 on the National Stock Exchange touched new all-time intra-day highs of 38,402.96 points and 11,581.75 points respectively.

However, broadly negative Asian markets along with investors' fears over rise in trade protectionist measures and high crude oil prices subdued the key indices later in the day.

Conversely, a strengthened rupee against the US dollar during the intra-day aided the key indices to arrest the slide. It strengthened to an intra-day high of 69.53 to a greenback.

Healthy buying activity was witnessed in healthcare, IT and capital goods stocks. However, selling pressure on consumer durables and metal stocks limited the gains.

At 3.30 p.m., the wider Nifty50 provisionally closed at 11,570.90 points, higher by 19.15 points of 0.17 per cent from its previous close of 11,551.75 points.

The 30-scrip BSE Sensex which had opened at 38,360.32 points, closed at 38,285.75 points (3.30 p.m.), higher by 7 points or 0.02 per cent from the previous close 38,278.75 points. It touched an intra-day low of 38,213.87 points.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India, Axis Bank, Sun Pharma, Wipro, NTPC, while the major losers were Tata Steel, Hindustan Unilever, Mahindra and Mahindra, Vedanta and Bharti Airtel.

--IANS

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