Extending their record-setting spree for the third day, the BSE Sensex today closed above the 29,000-mark for the first time and the Nifty touched another peak of 8,774.15 with sustained buying by funds in healthcare, capital goods, metal and auto sector stocks.

Continuing its surge for the sixth day, the BSE Sensex crossed the landmark 29,000-level for the first time to hit a life-time high of 29,060.41.

After paring some gains, the 30-share index settled at an all-time closing peak of 29,006.02, up by 117.16 points, or 0.41 per cent, over the previous close. It surpassed the earlier record closing of 28,888.86 hit yesterday.

The gauge has now gone up by 1,659.20 points in the six consecutive sessions.

Anindya Banerjee, analyst, Kotak Securities:
Expectation of a large scale asset purchase program from the European central bank continued to push domestic equity markets higher. Domestic indices closed at a lifetime high, with Nifty closing at 8761 and Sensex closing at 29,006. Rupee has been largely flattish for the last two days as state run banks have been heard to be intervening aggressively. India and its domestic asset and currency continue to draw significant positive externality from the ongoing cycle of hard asset deflation and financial asset inflation. G7 central banks, with their ever rising balance sheets, have engineered a bull run in global equity markets, which is happening inspite of a weakening global economy. All in all, we expect the exuberance to remain at least till the Union Budget and as a result, Rupee can remain ranged between 61.15/20 and 62.30/50 over the medium term.

Vivek Gupta, CMT – Director Research, CapitalVia Global Research:
BSE has crossed the levels of 29,000 for the first time the history of markets. It’s a great time for all the investors in the markets and the good thing is that still a lot of heat is still there in the markets. We can still find few sectors which have not yet felt the bullish momentum yet like Realty and PSU Banks. The rally till 29000 was completely led by sectors like IT, Pharma and Private banking stocks. Amidst all this rally we have seen big giants like Reliance not contributing at all. This year we might see a change in momentum and we might see a huge contribution is the rally from interest rate sensitive stocks, like capital goods, power, realty and private banking sectors. Investors should now gradually look to diversify some of their amount in these specific sectors for a better comparative return to risk.

Shrikant Chouhan, Head- Technical Research, Kotak Securities:
Today again the market players have preferred to trade/invest in core economy related sectors like psu banks, oil and gas stocks and finally capital goods and infra stocks.  It was more stock specific concentrated market rather than broad based.  Unexpected support from HUL and Hero Motors has helped the market to sustain above the level of 8700. Tomorrow in case if the market break 8689 then we can expect weakness for the day but it should be limited to 8600or 8625.  We are not expecting 8600 to break in a normal course of condition.  On the higher side 8745 is the level above which it would jump to 8800 or 8850 in the near term.

It took 50 trading sessions from November 12 to January 22 to reach the historic 29,000-level from 28,000.

Also, the NSE Nifty continued its winning run and zoomed to hit a fresh record high of 8,774.15, breaking its earlier record of 8,741.85 (intra-day) reached yesterday.

However, profit-booking at record levels trimmed some gains but the Nifty ended at a new record high of 8,761.40, up 31.90 points, surpassing its previous closing peak of 8,729.50 in yesterday’s trade.

Improving macroeconomic data, surprise rate cut by the Apex bank last week and encouraging Q3 earnings by some bluechip companies and positive global cues buoyed the market and helped key indices to hit new highs, brokers said.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) remained the main driving force behind the ongoing bull-run. FPIs bought shares worth a net Rs 2,065.49 crore yesterday, according to provisional data from the stock exchanges.

Sensex components which supported the key indices to hit fresh highs were Sun Pharma (3.65 pc), Axis Bank (3.30 pc), Tata Motors (2.70 pc), ONGC (2.01 pc), Cipla (1.73 pc), Tata Steel (1.51 pc), Infosys (1.41 pc), Coal India (1.24 pc), Wipro (1.17 pc), Dr Reddy (1.01 pc), L&T (0.86 pc), Sesa Sterlite (0.83 pc), BHEL (0.67 pc), M&M (0.47 pc), HUL (0.40 pc), Hindalco (0.24 pc) and Bharti Airtel (0.24 pc).

Sectorwise, BSE Healthcare index gained the most by rising 1.69 per cent, followed by Capital Goods index 1.12 per cent, Auto index 0.72 per cent, Metal index 0.67 per cent, Realty index 0.54 per cent, IT index 0.45 per cent, Banking index 0.37 per cent, Power index 0.22 per cent and FMCG 0.20 per cent.

Buying activity in small and midcap also gathered momentum, with the BSE midcap index rising by 0.07 per cent and smallcap index by 0.23 per cent.

($1 = 61.7300 rupee)