Markets Close At Life-Highs Ahead Of Budget 2014; Sensex Ends At 26,100

MUMBAI: The Nifty extended gains for second straight session and closed at record closing high in the pre-budget rally.

Defensives such as IT and pharmaceuticals led the gains while banks and oil & gas ended lower. Shares of railways related stocks were in action ahead of the railway budget.

The 50-share index ended at record closing high of 7,787.15, up 35.55 points or 0.46 per cent. It touched an all-time high of 7,792 and a low of 7,755.10 in trade today.

The S&P BSE Sensex closed at record closing high of 26,100.08, up 138.02 points or 0.53 per cent. It touched an all-time high of 26,123.55 and a low of 25,992.73 in trade today.

The S&P BSE Midcap Index was up 0.12 per cent and the S&P BSE Smallcap Index gained 0.60 per cent.

Among the sectoral indices, the S&P BSE IT Index rallied 2.63 per cent, the S&P BSE Healthcare Index was 0.80 per cent higher and the S&P BSE Power Index moved up 1.12 per cent.

The S&P BSE Oil & gas Index was down 0.91 per cent and the S&P BSE Bankex gained 1.21 per cent.

IDFC (up 6.01 per cent), Sun Pharma (up 4.25 per cent), Tata Power (up 3.45 per cent), TCS (up 3.30 per cent) and Infosys (up 2.98 per cent) were among the top index gainers.

IndusInd Bank (2.19 per cent), HDFC Bank (1.98 per cent), Ultratech Cement (1.88 per cent), BPCL (1.73 per cent) and ONGC (1.54 per cent) were among the Nifty losers.

The market breadth was flat on the NSE with 518 gainers against 504 losers.

The foreign institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 943.19 crore while domestic institutional investors were net sellers worth Rs 853.1 crore on Friday as per the provisional data from the National Stock Exchange.

(All figures are provisional except Sensex and Nifty)