The 30-share index, which had a solid run in the past few days, surged 1,470 points to hit a new life-time high of 25,375.63 in early trade fuelled by hopes that BJP government would fast-track reforms and accelerate economic activity.
However, the index started losing momentum later and briefly slipped into negative territory to touch low of 23,873.16. Frittering away significant portion of its gain on profit booking, the Sensex nevertheless concluded at a new closing peak of 24,121.74, a gain of 216.14 points or 0.90 per cent. This surpasses its closing of 23,905.60 on Thursday.
"While a lot of the positives are already factored in by the markets, now everyone will be watching out for actual steps to be taken by the government starting with Budget and Tax Reforms etc," said Nirakar Pradhan, Chief Investment Officer, Future Generali India Life Insurance.
The 50-share NSE Nifty crossed the key 7,500-mark to hit an all-time intra-day high of 7,563.50. However, profit-booking at record levels wiped off most of early gains to close at 7,203 -- 79.85 points, or 1.12 per cent higher.
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Among the 30-Sensex components, SBI (5.93 pc), HDFC Bank (2.11 pc), ICICI Bank (5.15 pc) Axis Bank (5.60 pc), Larsen and Toubro (3.52 pc), Reliance Industries (2.59 pc), ONGC (1.83 pc) and NTPC (2.01 pc) clocked smart gains.
Maruti Suzuki (1.76 pc), BHEL (5.25 pc), Coal India (1.45 pc), Bharti Airtel (3.33 pc), Tata Power (3.72 pc) and Tata Motors (2.39 pc) were also among prominent gainers. Sesa Sterlite was the best performer with 11 per cent gain.
The Sensex had surged over 1,560 points in the past five trading sessions after exit polls showed leads for the BJP-led NDA.