Mumbai, Dec 8 (IANS): Indian benchmark equity indices rose for the sixth consecutive session on Tuesday as foreign investors pumped in liquidity.

Prospects of a faster economic recovery made Indian stocks attractive, and they received a healthy foreign inflows of Rs 2,909.60 crore on Tuesday.

Initially, during the session, the Indian markets had a gap-up opening and made an intra-day high around 10 a.m.

The S&P BSE Sensex touched a record intra-day high of 45742.23 points, while the Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange touched new record high of 13,435.45 points.

However, a minor selloff took them down to make a low at 11.30 a.m. A gradual recovery followed.

Among sectors, PSU banks, IT and realty gained the most, while metals and pharma indices ended in the red.

Consequently, the NSE Nifty50 gained 37.20 points, or 0.28 per cent, to close at 13,392.95 points.

Similarly, the S&P BSE Sensex ended at 45,608.51 points, up 181.54 points, or 0.40 per cent, from its previous closing.

"Indian markets have outperformed most Asian and European markets today. Nifty has shown first signs of fatigue," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.

"Advance decline ratio which was even today after days of positive advance decline ratio also suggests broadbased profit taking. Nifty 13435 could act as a resistance in the near term while 13279 could act as a support."

Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said: "Reliance Industries and the IT stocks like TCS and Infosys led the market rally.

"Oil and gas was the biggest sectoral gainer and telecom was the biggest sectoral loser. PSU bank stocks rallied the most today."

"Markets might inch up further due to the continued positive flows from FIIs. So far in the month of Dec 2020 FIIs have pumped in more than 19K cr."

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services pointed out that since November, PSU banks have been outperforming the market and this rally continued and took Indian benchmark indices to new highs in Tuesday's volatile session.

"Reports of emergency vaccine rollout in India and hopes of a stimulus package in the US and Japan has also helped in keeping momentum live," Nair said.

"European stocks are experiencing negative waves due to fading hopes of Brexit trade talks and an increasing number of Covid cases. Although the markets are at an all-time high, the expected updates on vaccine rollouts and stimulus packages have the potential to take markets further."