Indian equity indexes closed at record high on Thursday, primarily led by sharp gains in bank shares on sustained buying, negating subdued global cues.

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The Sensex closed at 38,024.37, higher by 136.81 points, or 0.36 percent, while the Nifty ended at 11,470.70, rising by 20.70 points, or 0.18 percent. Nifty Bank also ended the day with gains, settling above 28,300 mark.

Midcaps also ended with gains over half a percent. Among BSE sectoral indices, Telecom, Consumer Durables and Healthcare were under maximum pressure, while Realty, Metal Power, Utilities, Bankex, surged higher by up to 2 percent.

Among NSE sectoral indices, Pharma, Media, IT and Auto trade in the negative zone. PSU Bank surged by nearly 3 percent and PVT Bank over a percent and Realty up by 2.08 percent.

Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI, Vedanta emerged as the top index gainers. Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank, Cipla were among top losers.

Markets sustained opening record gains

Sustained buying in bank, metal, pharma and financial stocks has kept Indian benchmark indexes, the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty 50, at higher levels on Thursday so far.

While both the indexes have edged lower from the record highs hit earlier in the session, the benchmark Sensex is still above the 38,000 mark. The 30-share BSE index had earlier surged to its lifetime high of 38,061, after opening at 37,994.51 while the 50-share NSE index scaled an all-time high of 11,495.

At 11:45 am, the Sensex was trading at 38,015.83, up by 128 points, or 0.34 percent while the Nifty 50 index was up 23.95 points, or 0.21 percent at 11,473.95.

Midcaps trade in the green albeit with modest gains. The Nifty MidCap was higher by 0.20 percent and the BSE MidCap was up by 0.45 percent.

Media, FMCG, Auto were under pressure among NSE sectoral indices, but Realty surged nearly 2 percent. However, the PSU Bank was over 3 percent higher while the Nifty Bank was up by 0.70 percent. Pharma and Fin Service also traded positive.

Six out of 19 sectoral indices on the BSE traded lower with telecom and consumer durables stockds under maximum pressure. Realty, Bankex, Finance rose by up to 1.87 percent.

ICICI Bank, SBI, Axis Bank, Infosys, Sun Pharma, Hindalco were among top index gainers, while Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Maruti Suzuki, Kotak Mahindra, HDFC Bank, UPL, Zee Entertainment, Titan pulled indexes lower.

Asian markets were trading mixed. While Japan's Nikkei was flat, Hong Kong's Hang Seng jumped over 300 points after strong Chinese inflation numbers.

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First Published:Aug 9, 2018 12:00 PM IST