Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], August 4 (ANI): Equity benchmark indices claimed fresh record peaks for the second consecutive day during early hours on Wednesday amid strong corporate earnings and ample liquidity in the system.

At 10:15 am, the BSE SP Sensex was up by 446 points or 0.83 per cent at 54,270 while the Nifty 50 advanced by 120 points or 0.74 per cent to 16,251.

Except for Nifty FMCG, IT and realty which dipped marginally, all sectoral indices were in the positive terrain with Nifty financial service gaining by 1.4 per cent, private bank by 1 per cent and metal by 0.9 per cent.

Among stocks, home loan lender HDFC moved up by 3.7 per cent to Rs 2,649.40 per share. ICICI Bank was up by 2 per cent, Kotak Mahindra Bank by 1.6 per cent, HDFC Bank by 1.1 per cent and Axis Bank by 0.8 per cent.

Tata Steel gained by 1.9 per cent, JSW Steel by 0.9 per cent, Hindalco by 0.6 per cent, Reliance Industries by 1 per cent and Dr Reddy's by 1.5 per cent.

However, Bharti Airtel dipped by 1.2 per cent, Tech Mahindra by 0.6 per cent, Nestle India by 0.4 per cent and Titan by 0.3 per cent.

Meanwhile, Asian shares advanced to one-week highs led largely by good US corporate earnings, although the mood remained cautious as the rapidly spreading Delta variant of the coronavirus clouds the global economic outlook.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan climbed 0.1 per cent to the highest since July 26.

Japan's Nikkei was in the red as were Chinese shares with the blue-chip index off 0.2 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dipped 0.13 per cent on lingering worries about China's tech crackdown as well as spiking coronavirus infections in the mainland. (ANI)