Markets end at record highs; Nifty breaches 8,500

The Sensex hit a fresh record high of 28,541.96 and the Nifty hit an all-time high of 8,534.65 in intra-day trades.

Benchmark shares continued their winning streak to end at record closing highs with the Nifty closing above 8,500 for the first time ever.

The Sensex ended up 165 points at 28,499 and the 50-share Nifty ended up 53 points at 8,530.

Markets continue to trade firm in the early noon trades with the benchmark indices hovering close to its all time highs recorded earlier in the day. The ones leading gains were metals, banks and IT scrips.

At 1410 hrs, the Sensex was up 161 points at 28,495 and the Nifty advanced 43 points to trade at 8,520.

In the broader markets, the mid and smallcap indices were up 0.3% each, underperforming the BSE benchmark index which gained 0.5%.

On the sectoral front, defensives like FMCG and Health Care indices were in red, down 0.2% and 0.05% respectively.

Oil & Gas index down 0.8% was the only other sectoral index in red. Among the ones in green were IT, Metal, Realty and Teck indices up 1-2%.

Banking, Consumer Durables and Capital Goods indices up 0.9% each were the other notable gainers.

Banking stocks continued to rally on the bourses, with the market value of ICICI Bank, crossing the Rs two lakh crore mark.

The private sector lender has become the third bank and ninth company in current list of companies having m-cap of over Rs 200,000 crore.

The stock was up 1.8%. HDFC Bank, SBI, Axis Bank and HDFC which gained 0.4-1.6% were the other gainers from the financial space.

Shares of metal companies were trading higher by upto 4% following the unexpected rate cut by China.

China has cut benchmark interest rates for the first time since July 2012 as leaders step up support for the world's second-largest economy.

Hindalco, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Jindla Steel and Sesa Sterlite were up 1-4.4%.

From the oil and Gas space, RIL and ONGC were down a percent each. In the international market, brent crude futures rose above $80.50 a barrel ahead of an OPEC meeting at which an output cut will be discussed.

IT space got a sentiment facelift as Infosys gained nearly 3% after the company said it has fixed record date as December 3, 2014 for the purpose of allotment of bonus shares/stock dividend.

TCS and Wipro followed with a 1% gain each. FMCG players like ITC and HUL were subdued, down 0.4% each.

Auto majors Tata Motors, Maruti and Bajaj Auto were flat to negative. Hero MotoCorp up 1.4% was the only exception. Rupee The Rupee was trading at 61.75 versus its Friday's close of 61.76. Traders say good demand for the dollar from state-run banks offsetting foreign fund inflows.

Global Markets

Asian share markets were higher as hopes of further policy stimulus in China and Europe whetted risk appetites while sending the euro skidding.

Hang Seng and Shaghai Composite up 2% was the top gainers. However, Straits Times was the only exception trending down 0.1%. Following Asian cues, European markets opened higher with CAC and DAX up 0.3% and 0.1% respectively. FTSE was flat with a negative bias.