Mumbai, Aug 20 (IANS): Positive global cues and recovery in the Indian rupee lifted the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 to provisionally end at record closing highs on Monday.

Heavy buying activity was witnessed in capital goods, metal and oil and gas stocks, analysts said.

Earlier in the day, both the indices -- BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty50 -- touched their all-time intra-day high levels of 38,340.69 points and 11,565.30 points respectively.

At 3.30 p.m., the wider Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange provisionally ended at a fresh closing high of 11,551.75 points, up 81 points or 0.71 per cent from its previous close.

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex which had opened at 38,075.07 points, closed at 38,278.75, points, higher by 330.87 points or 0.87 per cent from its previous close. It touched an intra-day low of 38,050.69 points.

Sector-wise, the S&P BSE Capital Goods index gained 668.41 points, the metal index rose by 332.36 points and the oil and gas was up 191.82 points by the end of the day's trade.

On the other hand, the IT index declined by 188.84 points, the consumer durable index fell 127.24 points and the Teck (technology, entertainment and media) stocks declined by 76.07 points.

The top gainers at the S&P BSE Sensex were Larsen and Toubro, Tata Motors (DVR), Tata Motors, ONGC, and Tata Steel. On the contrary the majors losers in the day were Infosys, Maruti Suzuki, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Hindustan Uniliver.

On Friday, the indices traded on a positive note with the Sensex closing at 37,947.88 points and the Nifty50 at 11,470.75 points.