Nifty finishes at record high

Benchmark Nifty spurted 52.70 points to end at an all-time high of 10,493 today, bolstered by robust buying in IT, PSU Bank, Energy, Infra and Media sectors amid upbeat global cues.

The Nifty opened positive and extended gains till mid- morning trade. Amid bouts of volatility, the index also breached the 10,500-mark.Overseas, Asian markets closed mostly higher in the last day of trade before Christmas, tracking moderate gains on Wall Street. European stocks were trading mixed.

The NSE Nifty opened higher at 10,457.30 and moved in a range of 10,501.10 and 10,448.25, before ending at 10,493, up 52.70 points, or 0.04 per cent.It saw an intra-day movement of about 52.85 points.On the sectoral front, IT rose by 1.12 per cent, PSU Bank 0.79 per cent, Energy 0.76 per cent, Media 0.69 per cent, Infra 0.63 per cent, Finance Service 0.49 per cent, Auto 0.46 per cent, Bank 0.37 per cent and Private Bank 0.25 per cent.

Major index gainers were ONGC, Bajaj Finance, TCS, Hindalco, Infosys, Wipro and Bharti Airtel.Losers included Ultratech Cement, Lupin, Coal India, Dr Reddy's, Tata Steel, HCL Tech, Hero MotoCo and Ambuja Cement.The market breadth, indicating its overall health, was in favour of gainers. On the NSE, 1,032 stocks advanced, 735 declined and 69 remained unchanged.Total securities that hit their price bands were 211.

Turnover in the cash segment fell to Rs 30,475.76 crore from Rs 32,518.93 crore as on Thursday.A total of 19,624.68 lakh shares changed hands in 10,578,800 trades. The market capitalisation of listed firms on the NSE stood at Rs 1,48,52,758.35 crore.