Sensex tops 34,000, Nifty closes at record high

MUMBAI: A late surge in the last half an hour of Tuesday's session took the sensex to a record closing high — above the 34,000 mark, helped by a sudden spurt in Reliance and Bharti Airtel stocks.

After opening at 34,005, the sensex mostly remained in a narrow zone before racing past the psychologically important mark to close 70 points higher at 34,011. Nifty on the NSE, too, closed at a record high at 10,532, showing a gain of 39 points. This is the first time the index closed above the 34,000 mark. The surge in late trade was easy, given the lacklustre foreign fund participation due to the holiday season in the most Western markets, market players said. On the sectoral side, realty, healthcare, metal and telecom stocks led the day's gains.

Top brokers expect the rally to continue albeit some short corrections. According to Religare Securities president (retail distribution) Jayant Manglik, the underlying sentiments continue to remain positive.

However, with indices trading at record highs, investors and traders should be cautious. "With lack of any fresh positive triggers on the domestic bourses, we expect the market to consolidate in the near term," he said.

Market players also said while during the week, expiration of derivatives contracts for the current month on Thursday will have some impact on the market trend. Going forward, the quarterly results season that starts in the second week of January, will also dictate the market's path, they said. Among the sensex stocks, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma and Yes Bank closed 2.6%, 1.9% and 1.7% higher respectively.

Bombay Stock Exchange - BSE

National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE)