Mumbai July 30 (IANS) Domestic equity indices continued to set new benchmarks on Monday and settled at their record closing levels supported by healthy quarterly earnings.
Earlier in the day the BSE Sensex crossed the 37 500 mark for the first time and touched an all-time intra-day high of 37 533.50 points. The NSE Nifty50 also hit a fresh high of 11 328.10 points.
Index-wise the wider Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at 11 319.55 points higher by 41.20 points or 0.37 per cent from its previous close of 11 278.35 points.
The 30-scrip BSE Sensex which had opened at 37 491.39 points closed at 37 494.40 points higher by 157.55 points or 0.42 per cent from its previous close of 37 336.85 points. It touched an intra-day low of 37 292.45 points.
In the broader markets the S&P BSE mid-cap rose by 0.30 per cent and the S&P BSE small-cap ended 0.55 per cent higher from its previous close. The BSE market breadth was bullish with 1 606 advances and 1 057 declines.
"Carrying on from last week markets continued to surge higher on Monday " said Deepak Jasani Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.
Globally however equity markets traded in the negative territory.
Major Asian markets closed on a negative note barring the Jakarta index and the European indices like FTSE 100 CAC 40 and DAX also traded in the red.
On the currency front the rupee closed at 68.68 depreciating by two paise from the previous close of 68.66 per dollar.
Investment-wise provisional data with exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors sold scrip worth Rs 234.04 crore and the domestic institutional investors purchased stocks worth Rs 48.58 crore.
Sector-wise the S&P BSE banking index gained the most by 401.01 points followed by the auto index which rose by 119.11 points and the oil and gas index up 112.79 points.
On the contrary S&P BSE oil and gas index ended lower by 112.79 points the capital goods index fell 40.34 points Teck index (technology entertainment and media) was down 18.38 points.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Bharti Airtel up 5.13 per cent at Rs 383.15; ICICI Bank up 4.76 per cent at Rs 307.25; State Bank of India up 3.75 per cent at Rs 297.35; and Axis Bank up 2.67 per cent at Rs 568.45; Mahindra and Mahindra up 2.52 per cent to Rs 932.70 per share.
The major losers were Infosys down 1.56 per cent at Rs 1 353.15; HDFC Bank down 1.41 per cent at Rs 2 172.25; Tata Motors (DVR) down 1.27 per cent at Rs 147.20; Larsen and Toubro down 1.19 per cent at Rs 1 295.80; and Adani Ports down 0.90 at Rs 390.70 per share.

--IANS rrb/vd