Sensex soars to all-time high of 34,638.42, Nifty at 10,600; Infosys gains ahead of Q3 results today

Mumbai: Markets continued their record-setting trend for the second straight session with the BSE Sensex soaring around 135 points to all-time high of 34,638.42 even as TCS posted disappointing December quarter earnings. Also, the broader NSE Nifty traded at an all-time high of 10,690.25. A firm trend in the Asian region influenced the market sentiment, a broker said. The 30-share index advanced 134.93 points, or 0.39 percent, to trade at an all-time high of 34,638.42, surpassing its previous high of 34,565.63, recorded on 10 January. Yesterday, the gauge had gained 70.42 points to close at record high of 343,503.49. All the sectoral indices led by metal, consumer durables, oil & gas and capital goods were in the positive zone, rising up to 0.71 percent. The NSE index Nifty too hit a new high of 10,690.25 by gaining 39.05 points, or 0.36 per \cent. It also breached previous record of 10,664.60 (intra-day) hit yesterday. [caption id=“attachment_4293377” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  BSE building. Reuters.[/caption] Stocks of country’s largest IT firm Tata Consultancy Services fell 1.20 percent after the company reported 3.6 percent fall in net profit for the December quarter. Infosys was trading higher by 0.22 percent ahead of Q3 earnings, to be announced after trading hours today. The big gainers that lifted the key indices to new highs were ICICI Bank, HDFC Ltd, Kotak Bank, Tata Motors, Reliance Industries, L&T, Axis Bank, Wipro, SBI, Tata Steel, NTPC and HDFC Bank, gaining up to 1 percent. Domestic institutional investors had bought shares worth Rs 770.02 crore, while FIIs sold equities to the tune of Rs 623.63 crore yesterday Asian markets were trading with gains after Wall Street hit fresh all-time high yesterday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.49 percent, while Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.04 per cent and Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.08 percent in early trade today. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at record high by rising 0.81 percent.