Final trade: Indices end at fresh record highs, Nifty settles near 25,280; Bajaj Finserv up over 3%

Indian equities after marking their fresh record highs in early trade ended at fresh closing highs. Nifty ended at  25,278.7 levels after continuous gains for thirteen straight sessions, up 0.17 per cent or 42.8 points. Sensex ended 0.24 per cent or 194.07 points higher at 82,559.84.

Weakness, meanwhile, also was seen in the Nifty Midcap 100 index after it marked a new 52-week high today.

From the Nifty pack top gainers included stocks like Bajaj Auto, Bajaj twins, LTIMindtree and HCL Tech which were up more than 3 per cent, while laggards were Grasim Industries, Adani Enterprises, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Coal India and Nestle.

Sectorally it was a mixed session, with auto, metal and pharma pack ending in the red, while FMCG, financial services and PSU Bank packs ended with gains up to 1 per cent.

Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said, "The Indian market continues to hold its ground and sustains the new high with marginal positivity. The positive trend is broadly sustaining as the domestic economic growth is still healthy and PMI numbers are much above the long-term average indicating uptick in earnings in the coming quarters. But volatility is increasing as Q1 GDP growth has moderated and a similar trend is witnessed in corporate earnings. Also, August Indian PMI readings were marginally below July numbers indicating that caution is in the air."

Meanwhile, European markets traded lower as the focus shifted to rate cut moves likely by the US Federal Reserve.