Mumbai Aug 6 (IANS) Broadly positive global cues along with healthy buying in banking stocks helped the key Indian equity indices to set fresh benchmarks on Monday.
Before settling at record closing levels both S&P BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty50 had touched their all-time intra-day highs of 37 805.25 points and 11 427.65 points respectively.
However weakness in the Indian rupee limited the gains in the market analysts said.
Index-wise the wider Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed 11 387.10 points higher by 26.30 points or 0.23 per cent from its previous close.
The BSE Sensex which had opened at 37 714.70 points closed at 37 691.89 points -- higher by 135.73 points or 0.36 per cent -- from its previous close of 37 556.16 points. It touched an intra-day low of 37 643.29 points.
In the broader markets the S&P BSE mid-cap rose by 0.26 points and the S&P BSE small-cap ended 0.39 per cent from its previous close. The BSE market breadth was bullish with 1 591 advances against 1 145 declines.
"Markets in India saw a gap-up opening on positive Asian stocks and traded firm through the day " said Abhijeet Dey Senior Fund Manager for Equities at BNP Paribas Mutual Fund.
On the currency front the rupee closed at 68.89 weakened by 28 paise from the previous close of 68.61 per dollar.
Investment-wise provisional data with exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors bought scrip worth Rs 248.70 crore and the domestic institutional investors purchased stocks worth Rs 218.64 crore.
Sector-wise the S&P BSE banking index rose by 344.18 points the auto index was up 99.70 points and the metal index ended higher by 98.65 points.
On the contrary the S&P BSE healthcare declined by 61.39 points followed by the FMCG index which was down 41.32 points and the IT index which ended lower by 34.37 points.
The major gainers on the Sensex were Axis Bank up 3.86 per cent at Rs 596.50; ICICI Bank up 3.36 per cent at Rs 315.05; State Bank of India up 3.33 per cent at Rs 308.55; Bharti Airtel up 3.07 per cent at Rs 386.20; and Hero MotoCorp up 1.57 per cent from Rs 3 296.95 per share.
The major losers were Kotak Mahindra Bank down 2.05 per cent at Rs 1 282.35; Hindustan Unilever down 1.65 per cent at Rs 1 730.50; Sun Pharma up 1.58 per cent at Rs 575.60; Tata Motors down 1.57 per cent at Rs 254.70; and Tata Motors (DVR) down 1.37 per cent at Rs 140.70 per share.

--IANS rrb/mr