The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes closed at record highs for third session in a row on Wednesday led by rally in Larsen & Toubro, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, ICICI Bank and State Bank of India. The benchmarks traded in a range bound manner for most part of the day. However, late buying in banking stocks propelled benchmarks to record highs. The Sensex rose as much as 263 points to hit record high of 44,215.49 and Nifty 50 index touched an all-time high of 12,948.85.
The Sensex ended 227 points or 0.52 per cent higher at 44,180 and Nifty 50 index advanced 64 points or 0.5 per cent to close at an all-time high of 12,938.
Eight of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty PSU Bank index's 3.6 per cent gain. Nifty Auto, Private Bank, Realty, Financial Services and Bank indexes also rose between 1.4-3.1 per cent each.
On the other hand, FMCG, IT and pharma stocks witnessed selling pressure.
Mid-cap shares witnessed strong buying interest as Nifty Midcap 100 index advanced 1.5 per cent.
Mahindra & Mahindra was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 11 per cent to close at 52-week high of Rs 705. Tata Motors, Bajaj Finserv, Larsen & Toubro, IndusInd Bank, State Bank of India, Bajaj Finance, Adani Ports, Eicher Motors, Hindalco, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank also rose between 2-9 per cent.
On the flipside, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Unilever, Dr Reddy's Labs, Titan, TCS, ITC, Bharti Airtel, Hero MotoCorp, Tech Mahindra and Sun Pharma were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 1,615 shares ended higher while 1,156 closed lower on the BSE.