Sensex misses 23 thousand by a whisker

Mumbai: Continuing its record breaking performance, the BSE benchmark Sensex on Wednesday spurted by over 118 points to end the day at all time closing high of 22,876.54 on select buying in blue chip stocks like Larsen and Turbo, HDFC Bank and BHEL amid persistent capital inflows. The 30 share index recorded its highest ever figure of 22,912.52 points intra-day, but lost the momentum on emergence of profit-booking. The 50 share Nifty of NSE rose by 25.45 points to finish at all-time record of 6,840.80 after hitting historic level of 6,861.60 intra day.

This is the third successive day that indices are hitting their life time high levels intra day.“Elections results will be out soon, and quarterly results have already started coming in. These events can direct market trends in the coming sessions,” said Nidhi Saraswat, senior resea-rch analyst, Bonanza Portfolio, adding that after one-sided rally seen for the last few sessions, profit-booking at higher levels is expected now.

Stock brokers said buying activity gathered momentum as investors covered their pending short positions on April settlement in the derivatives segment. Buying by FIIs and retail investors on the back of encouraging earnings by corporates also helped key indices to continue their record-breaking performance, they added.After touching the highest ever figure of 22,912.52, the barometer surrendered some gains to settle at 22,876.54, a gain of 118.17 points or 0.52 per cent, from previous close. Adding to its gains of the last two session, L&T surged by 2.48 per cent on positive recommendations by brokerages.