The benchmark BSE Sensex and Nifty pared gains after touching new highs amid moderate volatility in the morning trade and was up by 64 points on firm buying in sectors such as metal, capital goods, auto, realty, banks, healthcare, FMCG, power, teck and oil & gas.
Shares of mid-cap and small-cap companies also gained on buying spree. There were bouts of profit-booking in key heavyweights including consumer durables and IT segments.
Earlier, the Sensex marked all-time new highs of 26,520 and Nifty breached 7,900-level on overall positive sentiments tracking firm Asian cues coupled with heavy FII buying.
The 30-share Sensex opened higher at 26,482.56 and surged to a new high of 26,530.67 and low of 26,433.38 before quoting at 26,454.96 at 1010 hours, showing a gain of 64 points, or 0.24 per cent, from its last close.
The NSE 50-share barometer Nifty also marked new peak of 7,912.05. It was trading up by 19.55 points, or 0.25 per cent, to 7,893.80 at 1010 hours.
Major gainers were SSLT (2.77 per cent), Dr Reddy's (2.12 per cent), M&M (1.44 per cent), Axis Bank (1.38 per cent), L&T (1.26 per cent), Tata Power (1.09 per cent) and HeroMotocorp (1.07 per cent).
Notable losers were TCS (1.44 per cent), HDFC (1.24 per cent), SunPharma (0.90 per cent) and RIL (0.17 per cent).
Asian stocks were trading higher following firm overnight close of US stocks amid upbeat US housing data and hopes of progress in the Ukraine crisis.
Key benchmark indices in South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and Indonesia rose 0.1 pct to 1.05 pct. China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.05 pct.
Meanwhile, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 473.42 crore yesterday as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
