A benchmark index of Indian equities markets ended Wednesday's trade 359 points or 1.61 percent up, after touching 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 high of 22,740.04 points, which surpassed its previous record of 22,620 points reached April 3.

 

 The S&P BSE Sensex, which opened at 22,389.21 points, closed at a new record high of 22,702.34 points, up 358.89 points or 1.61 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 banks, automobile, healthcare, metal and capital goods stocks. 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 493.45 points, followed by automobile index which climbed 234.33 points, healthcare index gained 229.09 points, metal index higher by 228.99 points, and capital goods index up 218.04 points. However, the IT index tanked by 96.48 points and TECK index fell 41.39 points.

 

 The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) too touched a new record high of 6,808.70 points, before closing 101.15 points or 1.15 percent up at 6,796.20 points, its record closing high so far.

 

 The major Sensex gainers were: Sun Pharma, up 6.91 percent at Rs.627.80; Axis Bank, up 4.44 percent at Rs.1,484.85; Tata Motors, up 4.40 percent at Rs.421; ICICI Bank, up 4.18 percent at Rs.1,259.55; and Hindalco Inds, up 4.05 percent at Rs.142.70.

 

 The main losers were: Infosys, down 1.16 percent at Rs.3,253.10; ONGC, down 0.95 percent at Rs.322.45; Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), down 0.72 points at Rs.2,134.90; Wipro, down 0.49 points at Rs.553.65; and Maruti Suzuki, down 1.20 percent at Rs.1,903.95.

 

 Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 2.10 percent down, but Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended 1.09 percent higher. China's Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.33 points.

 

 In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.77 percent higher at the closing bell here. So was Germany's DAX Index, up 0.21 percent, while the French CAC 40 Index increased by 0.45 percent.