In see-saw trade, equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty frittered away most of their early gains and inched up to log fresh closing highs for the fourth straight day on Tuesday amid profit taking in recent gainers like RIl.
While buying was seen in realty, IT, consumer durable, metal and pharma, oil&gas shares were dumped by investors, say traders. Small-cap and mid-cap stocks, favourites of retail investors, continued to out-perform bluechips, they added.
The BSE Sensex resumed well and shot up to day's high of 24,587.16 on firm Asian cues and heavy buying by foreign funds. However, the buoyancy was short-lived as it fell back to trade almost flat till afternoon trade.
It rebounded marginally to settle at a new closing peak of 24,376.88, clocking a net rise of 13.83 points or 0.06 per cent. In straight four sessions, the index has flared up by 561.76 points, or 2.36 per cent, on hopes that the incoming Narendra Modi-led Government will boost the economy.
It previous closing peak was 24,363.05 made on Monday.
"In line with expectation, markets were seen trading in a narrow range on Tuesday and closed almost unchanged in the end...We have been seen noticeable interest in midcap and smallcap segment nowadays," said Jayant Manglik, President-retail distribution, Religare Securities.