The benchmark BSE Sensex achieved yet another record on Wednesday by scaling 34,123.14 on the back of a rally in healthcare, power and oil stocks. However, the NSE index Nifty was trading flat.

At 10.15 a.m., the 30-share BSE index Sensex was up 78.7 points or 0.23 per cent at 34,089.31 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was up 6.3 points or 0.06 per cent at 10,537.80.

Among BSE sectoral indices, healthcare index gained the most by 1.71 per cent, followed by power 0.51 per cent, infrastructure 0.39 per cent and PSU 0.37 per cent. On the other hand, consumer durables index was down 0.11 per cent and metal 0.03 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were Sun Pharma (+4.08%), Dr Reddy's (+1.47%), HUL (+0.96%), NTPC (+0.87%) and PowerGrid (+0.67%), while the major losers were Wipro (-0.64%), Coal India (-0.4%), Bharti Airtel (-0.38%), ITC (-0.38%) and ICICI Bank (-0.35%).

Shares of Reliance Communications rallied 25 per cent in Wednesday's trade as the company has unveiled a plan to exit its ongoing strategic debt restructuring exercise and reduce its debt by 87 per cent to about ₹6,000 crore.

Shares of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries jumped as much as 4.4 per cent on Wednesday as the US drug regulator has accepted a new drug application for OTX-101, used in treating dry eye disease.

India’s benchmark equity index S&P BSE Sensex closed above the 34,000-mark on Tuesday, capping its longest bull run without a 5 per cent fall in a single year in over two decades. The broader index CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange closed above the 10,500-mark. The Sensex closed at 34,010, and the Nifty at 10,531.

A stock market rally during this time of the year, on low trading volumes, is described as a Santa Claus rally. Equity market trading volumes across the world are less than half during this holiday-shortened week folowing Christmas.

As per provisional data, domestic institutional investors pumped in ₹544 crore into equities. On the other hand, foreign portfolio investors, most of whom were absent from the markets in the holiday week, were net sellers of stocks worth ₹44.07 crore in the cash equity segment.

Tuesday’s rally in key indices was supported by a 1.69 per cent rise in the share price of Reliance Industries, which has nearly doubled in market capitalisation this year.