Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices continued their rally in early trade on Wednesday amid buying in banking counters, a largely positive trend in other Asian markets and continuous foreign fund inflows. The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 183.9 points to end at 62,865.74 points in early trade. The broader NSE Nifty advanced by 61.5 points to settle at 18,679.55 points. The 30-share BSE benchmark gained 177.04 points or 0.28 percent to settle at 62,681.84, its fresh record closing high on November 29. The Nifty advanced by 55.30 points or 0.30 percent to end at 18,618.05, its fresh record closing high. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,241.57 crore on November 29, as per exchange data.
Among the Sensex pack, Mahindra & Mahindra, Dr Reddy's, Tata Steel, Nestle, Asian Paints, HDFC Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank and UltraTech Cement were the major gainers.
HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, Infosys and Power Grid were among the laggards.
Asian markets in Seoul, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading higher while in Tokyo, shares were trading lower.
Wall Street had ended on a mixed note on November 29.
International oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.95 percent higher at USD 83.87 per barrel.
"An important feature of the ongoing rally which has taken the Sensex and Nifty to record highs is that this is a mature rally led by high quality stocks in performing sectors," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.
Also, the US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell's speech on Wednesday will be closely watched by global markets for cues on rate hike trajectory.
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