Mumbai, Jun 10 (IANS): Indian equity indices opened at an all-time high on Monday.

In early trade, Sensex and Nifty made a new all-time high of 77,079 and 23,411 respectively.

At 9:45 am, Sensex was at 76,703, up 9 points and Nifty was at 23,293, up 4 points.

Broader markets are in an uptrend. The Nifty midcap 100 was up 230 points or 44 per cent, at 53,425 and the Nifty smallcap was up 133 points or 0.78 per cent, at 17,349.

India volatility index (India VIX) is at 17.09, up nearly one per cent.

Among the sector indices, PSU Bank, fin service, realty, energy, and pharma are major gainers. Pvt bank, metal and IT are major laggards.

In Sensex pack, Powergrid, Ultratech Cement, Axis Bank, NTPC, Nestle, Reliance, SBI, Bharti Airtel, and Tata Motors are major gainers and Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Infosys, HCL Tech and Titan are top losers.

“It is important to understand that the major driving force in this bull market is the Indian retail investors including HNIs. Big selling by FIIs is getting eclipsed by the aggressive buying of DIIs and retail investors,” experts said.

They added that the fact that retail investors bought equity for Rs 21,179 crores on June 4th, the day Nifty tanked 5.9 per cent, indicates the buying power and optimism of the retail investors.

Mixed trading is taking place in Asian markets. Tokyo and Shanghai are in the green, while the markets of Seoul, Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Jakarta are trading in the red. American markets closed in the red on Friday. Crude oil benchmark Brent crude is at $79 and Brent crude at $75.