The stock market began the trading week on a strong note with benchmarks hitting fresh all-time high led by banking stocks post robust earnings reported over the weekend.

Nifty 50 almost touched the coveted 25,000 mark as the index hit a fresh record high of 24,999.75 during the session. Sensex also hit a fresh all-time high of 81,908.43 in intraday trade.

Nifty 50 closed just 1 point higher at 24,836.10, while the Sensex closed 23 points higher at 81,355.84.

On the back of strong global cues, indices opened at fresh record high and extended the gains in the first half. However, they erased all gains in the second half to end with little change from the previous close.

On Nifty50, shares of Larsen and Toubro, Reliance Industries, and Mahindra and Mahindra contributed the most to the gains.

Shares of HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel and ITC ended as the top drags on the index.

On Sensex, as many as 404 stocks, including Infosys, NTPC, Sun Pharma, Tata Motors, TCS and Tech Mahindra, hit their fresh 52-week highs in intraday trade.

The BSE midcap index rose nearly 1% while smallcap index added 1.2 per cent.

Shares of construction major NBCC (India) rallied over 8 per cent in intra-day deals after the state-owned company announced that its arm, HSCC (India) Limited, has secured a significant order worth Rs 411.45 crore.

RITES shares zoomed more than 14% after the railway-linked state-run company informed the exchanges that it will hold a board meet on July 31 to consider a bonus issue of shares.

Cipla shares were up 2% in early trade after brokerages retained their optimistic outlook following the company’s quarterly earnings show.

Further, the shares of Interglobe Aviation or IndiGo fell 5% to Rs 4,273 apiece in morning trade after the company’s Q1 earnings disappointed the Street.

IndusInd Bank rose over 2% after it reported decent Q1FY25 results. Although brokerages remain bullish due to attractive valuations, they lowered target prices as Q1 earnings missed estimates.

Global peers were largely positive while investors await the policy meeting outcomes of the UD Federal Reserve, Bank of England (BoE), and Bank of Japan (BoJ) this week.

The US Fed is expected to keep interest rates steady on Wednesday but it may hint at a cut at its next policy meeting in September, considering easy inflation and a resilient economy.