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Markets retained its opening gains and the Nifty continues to hover around its all time highs with the Sensex up 237 points at 21,992 and the Nifty advanced 72 points to trade at 6,566.
In the opening trades, the 30-share BSE Sensex surged to touch its record high level of 22,047 and the 50-share NSE Nifty surged to a new high of 6,580.
The broader markets are underperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up 0.2%.
Banking shares continued its upward march with most the stocks trading higher by up 3% on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The banking index up 2.5% was the top sectoral gainer.
ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of India, YES Bank and Bank of Baroda are up more than 2% each, while Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank are up 1-2%.
Realty and Oil & Gas indices up 1.2% and 1.8% respectively were the major sectoral gainers.
Meanwhile, Consumer Durables and Health Care indices down 0.2-0.3% were the only sectoral losers.
IT index was flat with a negative bias.
Other notable gainers were Coal India, GAIL, ONGC, RIL, M&M, BHEL and Hero Moto.
Metal names like Hindalco and Tata Steel down nearly 1% each were the top losers among Sensex-30.
Dr Reddy’s Lab, NTPC, Sun Pharma, Infosys and Wipro down 0.3-0.8% were the other prominent losers.
Among other shares, Techno Electric and Engineering Company has soared 16% to Rs 140 after promoter increased their stake in the company by over 4 percentage point to 59.28% via indirect acquisition.
The market breadth in BSE remains neutral.
