Sensex, Nifty retreat after touching record highs

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets ended Wednesday's trade 383.75 points or 1.72 percent up, after it touched another record high of 22,740.04 points.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) started rising sharply around 3 p.m. and hit a new intra-day record high of 22,740.04 points, which surpassed its previous high level of 22,620 points reached April 3.

The S&P BSE Sensex, which opened at 22,389.21 points, (provisionally) closed at a new record high of 22,727.20 points, up 383.75 points or 1.72 percent from the previous day's close at 22,343.45 points. The Sensex touched a high of 22,740.04 points and a low of 22,379.95 points intra-trade.

Healthy buying was observed in stocks like banks, capital goods, automobile, metal and healthcare sectors. However, information technology (IT) and technology, entertainment and media (TECK) scrips came under sustained selling pressure.

In Wednesday's trade, the S&P BSE bank index zoomed by 507.98 points, followed by capital goods index which climbed 261.15 points, automobile index that gained 253.81 points, metal index higher by 230.71 points, and healthcare index up 226.09 points.

However, IT index tanked by 99.23 points and TECK index was down 42.56 points. The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) too touched a new record of 6,807.45 points, before closing 101.15 points or 1.15 percent up at 6,796.20 points.