Sensex, Nifty touch record highs, close flat

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Tuesday closed flat after touching a new high of 22,485.77 points.

The new intra-day high touched by the 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) came after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) left key interest rates unchanged. The move was widely expected by the markets.

The 30-scrip Sensex, which opened at 22,455.23 points, closed at 22,446.44 points, up 60.17 points or 0.27 percent from its previous day close at 22,386.27 points.

It touched a high of 22,485.77 points and a low of 22,295.65 points intra-day. The new high surpassed the previous high set Monday at 22,467.21 points.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) too touched a new record high of 6,732.25 points before closing trade at 6,721.05 points - up 16.85 points or 0.25 percent.

Healthy buying was observed in information technology (IT), oil and gas and technology, entertainment and media (TECk) stocks. Banks, capital goods and realty scrips came under sustained selling pressure in the day's trade.

The S&P BSE IT index gained 145.67 points, oil and gas index increased by 103.54 points and TECk index went up by 86.49 points.

However, the bank index slipped by 171.76 points, followed by capital goods index, down 38.38 points. The realty index lost 86.49 points.

The major Sensex gainers were: Wipro, up 3.30 percent at Rs.560.50; Sesa Sterlite, up 2.08 percent at Rs.191.85, Tata Consultancy Services, up 2.08 percent at Rs.2,172.45, Tata Steel, up 1.89 percent at Rs.401.30; and Mahindra and Mahindra, up 1.77 percent at Rs.998.05.

The main losers were: Hindalco Inds, down 2.54 percent at Rs.138.10; Maruti Suzuki, down 2.04 percent at Rs.1,931.15; ICICI Bank, down 1.74 points at Rs.1,223.80; HDFC Bank, down 1.44 points at Rs.738.10; and BHEL, down 1.32 percent at 194.20.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.24 percent down and Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed 1.34 percent up, while China's Shanghai Composite Index rose by 0.70 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.52 percent up at closing bell here. Germany's DAX Index was also up 0.63 percent and the French CAC 40 Index gained 0.85 percent.