Sensex off record highs, still up 76 points in late morning

The benchmark BSE Sensex retreated from record highs to trade up by 76.05 points on good bouts of buying in metal, industrial, capital goods, auto, energy, banks and financials amid higher Asian cues.
Profit booking in IT, Teck and telecom counters pulled the index back from record high level.
The 30-share Sensex was trading higher by 76.05 points or 0.22 per cent at 34,579.54 at 1050 hrs. The broader Nifty also strading up by 22.45 points, or 0.21 per cent at 10,673.65.
The 30-share index had advanced 134.93 points, or 0.39 per cent, to hit all-time high of 34,638.42, while Nifty had soared to a record of 10,690.25 by gaining 39.05 points, or 0.36 per cent, in early trade.

Major gainers were ICICI Bank 1.26 per cent, Maruti 1.25 per cent, Reliance 1.16 per cent, L&T 0.69 per cent and HDFC 0.58 per cent.
Notable losers were TCS 1.27 per cent, Bharti Airtel 0.82 per cent and Wipro 0.45 per cent.

Investors were cautious ahead of Q3 results by Infosys to released later in the day after the country's largest IT firm TCS posted a 3.9 per cent drop in profit and a 2.7 per cent increase in revenue for the October-December quarter.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 623.63 crore on net basis while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities to the tune of Rs 770.02 crore yesterday, provisional data showed.

Asian markets trading higher after strong lead from Wall Street. China reported trade data for December with exports moving up 10.9 per cent and imports rising 4.5 per cent.
US stocks surged to close the session at record highs yesterday as investors bet economic growth would pick up steam.