Benchmark indices climbed in early trade on Wednesday, with the BSE Sensex hitting its lifetime high of 63,588.31, amid buying in index majors HDFC twins and Reliance Industries.
The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 146 points to 63,473.70 in early trade. The NSE Nifty advanced 37 points to 18,853.70.
Later, the BSE benchmark jumped 260.61 points to reach its all-time peak of 63,588.31. The benchmark reached the milestone after a gap of nearly seven months.
On December 1 last year, the Sensex hit its intra-day record peak of 63,583.07.
From the Sensex pack, Power Grid, UltraTech Cement, HDFC Bank, Wipro, HDFC, Hindustan Unilever, Larsen & Toubro, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv, Titan, Tata Consultancy Services, and Reliance Industries were the major gainers.
Tata Steel, NTPC, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, and Asian Paints were among the laggards.
In Asian markets, Tokyo quoted in the green, while Seoul, Shanghai, and Hong Kong were trading lower. The US markets ended lower on Tuesday.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.26 per cent to USD 76.09 a barrel.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 1,942.
62 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.
"It is important to understand that this is a global rally with most markets -- US, Euro Zone, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan -- hovering around 52-week highs...Globally markets are bullish even when global growth is sluggish.
"The reason for this bullish trend is that the US recession, which markets had discounted last year, didn't happen and there are indications that the US might avoid a recession. So, markets are correcting the wrong discounting of last year," V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, said.
The 30-share BSE benchmark settled higher by 159.40 points or 0.25 per cent at 63,327.70 on Tuesday. The Nifty advanced 61.25 points or 0.33 per cent to end at 18,816.70.
"All eyes will be on the US Federal Reserve Chairman's testimony before the US Congress later today," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research) at Mehta Equities Ltd, said.
