Markets continued their record-setting streak for yet another session on Thursday with both the Sensex and Nifty ending at life-time highs due to optimism over earnings and short-covering on derivatives expiry.

The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended higher by 104.63 points or 0.32 per cent at 33,147.13 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty closed up by 48.45 points or 0.47 per cent at 10,343.80. Both the key indices had climbed to life-time highs on Wednesday as well.

According to brokers, covering-up of pending short positions by speculators due to expiry of October derivatives contracts helped the index recover in the last hour of trade.

Among BSE sectoral indices, oil & gas index was the star-peformer and was up 2.19 per cent, followed by metal 2.07 per cent, capital goods and PSU 1.26 per cent each. On the other hand, consumer durables index fell 0.78 per cent and TECk 0.09 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were Cipla (+3.18%), Maruti (+2.6%), Axis Bank (+2.48%), Tata Steel (+1.72%) and L&T (+1.68%), while the major losers were ICICI Bank (-2.08%), PowerGrid (-1.65%), State Bank of India (-1.25%), Asian Paints (-0.96%) and Bharti Airtel (-0.96%).

F&O expiry

Market-wide rollover of F&O positions till Wednesday stood at 35 per cent compared with an average rollover of 54 per cent seen in the last three F&O series. Nifty futures rollovers at 44 per cent which were in line rollovers seen on an average in last three series.

On Wednesday, the 30-share BSE index Sensex ended higher by 435.16 points or 1.33 per cent at 33,042.50 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty closed up by 87.65 points or 0.86 per cent at 10,295.35 as the Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, had on Tuesday announced a massive Rs 6.92 lakh crore for infrastructure spending and another Rs 2.11 lakh crore for bank recapitalisation to revive investments and growth.

Asian stocks stalled on Thursday, weighed as Wall Street shares pulled back from record highs, while the euro stretched gains ahead of a European Central Bank policy meeting at which it could take a major step away from accommodative policy.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.05 per cent. Australian stocks dipped 0.2 per cent while South Korea's KOSPI lost 0.1 per cent. Japan's Nikkei, which had snapped a 16-day winning run the previous day, rose 0.35 per cent.

US stocks fell on Wednesday, with the Dow Industrials and S&P 500 indexes suffering their worst day in seven weeks, on a batch of soft quarterly earnings and a rise in bond yields.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 112.3 points or 0.48 per cent to end at 23,329.46, the S&P 500 lost 11.98 points or 0.47 per cent to 2,557.15 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 34.54 points or 0.52 per cent to 6,563.89.

(With inputs from agencies)

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