MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Sensex and the Nifty briefly hit record highs on Monday on the back of continued strong foreign buying in blue chips such as HDFC Bank<.HDBK.NS>, but edged lower soon afterwards on profit-taking and because of falls in regional shares.
The Sensex all-time high of 22,005.54 points marked its third consecutive record high in as many sessions, while the Nifty hit a second consecutive milestone at 6,545.10 points.
Foreign investors posted on Friday their biggest daily purchases since December 9, or a net 25.77 billion rupees. That marked a 16th consecutive buying session for a net total of about $1.4 billion.
However, both the Sensex and Nifty edged lower after hitting their respective record highs, tracking a slide in Asian shares on the back of disappointing Chinese trade data and uncertainty over the crisis in Ukraine.
(Reporting by Indulal PM; Editing by Rafael Nam)