Stocks on December 26,2017, went into unexplored territory as benchmarks Sensex and Nifty closed at life highs, mainly because of some fag-end buying by participants. The 30-share Sensex was up for the second straight session, hitting 34,010.61, a fresh closing high — with a gain of 70.31 points, or 0.21 per cent. It had risen 184.10 points in the previous session. For the 50-share Nifty, the close was a fresh peak at 10,531.50, up 38.50 points, or 0.37 per cent, dismantling its previous record of 10,493 reached previously. It was all-time intra-day high for both the benchmarks too. Mid-cap and small-cap indices continued to be on investors` radar. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 107.87 crore while the buying tally for domestic institutional investors (DIIs) was Rs 371.53 crore on Friday, provisional data showed. “Market started off range bound as investors` participation remained low due to holiday season while stock specific action in telecom, pharma and metal towards the close raised the indices to a new high. Mid and small cap outperformed on expectation of improvement in rural demand supported by continued government reforms. There were also signs of speculators rushing to cover their short positions ahead of this year`s last expiry in the derivatives segment on Thursday.
