Mumbai Aug 9 (IANS) Foreign fund inflows along with domestic political developments lifted the Indian equity indices to new record highs on Thursday with the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex crossing the 38 000 points mark.
Similarly the the wider Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) made a fresh intra-day record high of 11 495.20 points.
Even the broader market indices like the BSE MidCap and SmallCap made gains. They rose 0.59 per cent and 0.29 per cent respectively.
Sector-wise PSU banks realty and metal stocks led the northward trajectory of the two key indices.
According to market observers fresh highs came on the back of renewed confidence in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government as the Janata Dal-United s Harivansh Narayan Singh was elected the Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha. He was fielded by the BJP-led NDA.
Also broadly positive global cues such as low crude oil prices and better-than-expected quarterly results pushed the key indices higher.
Consequently the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex closed at a new record high of 38 024.37 points higher by 136.81 points or 0.36 per cent from its previous close.
The barometer index touched a fresh record high of 38 076.23 points and a low of 37 939.28 points during the day s trade.
Besides the wider NSE Nifty50 made a new closing high of 11 470.70 points higher by 20.70 points or 0.18 per cent.
"Technically the underlying trend of the Nifty remains up. Further upsides are likely once the immediate resistance of 11 493 points is taken out " HDFC Securities Retail Research Head Deepak Jasani told IANS.
"Crucial supports to watch for any weakness are at 11 415 points."
Geojit Financial Services Head of Research Vinod Nair said: "Green shoots in earnings and growth prospects of domestic economy overrode global headwinds caused by trade tensions."
"On the other hand oil price hovering near the recent low and increasing exposure of FIIs in domestic equity bodes well for the market direction."
Investment-wise provisional data with exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors bought scrip worth Rs 370.68 crore while the domestic institutional investors sold stocks worth Rs 85.39 crore.
On the currency front the rupee weakened by 6 paise to 68.68 against the US dollar from its previous close of 68.62.
Sectorally the S&P BSE banking index rose 415.77 points the metal index was up 179.90 points and the realty index ended higher by 49.27 points.
In contrast the S&P BSE consumer durable index declined by 191.98 points followed by the healthcare index which was down 99.41 points and the capital goods index which ended lower by 51.77 points.
The major gainers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank up 4.64 per cent at Rs 332.95; Axis Bank up 3.86 per cent at Rs 619.45; Vedanta up 2.56 per cent at Rs 230.50; State Bank of India up 2.53 per cent at Rs 316.45; and PowerGrid up 1.69 per cent from Rs 192.75 per share.
The major losers were Bharti Airtel down 4.64 per cent at Rs 366.75; ONGC down 1.75 per cent at Rs 168.90; Kotak Mahindra Bank down 0.98 per cent at Rs 1 277.70; L&T down 0.88 per cent at Rs 1 286.35; and IndusInd Bank down 0.86 per cent at Rs 1 985.05 per share.

--IANS ravi-rv/vm