Mumbai, Sep 2 (IANS): Healthy monsoon season, as well as better-than-expected macro economic data and inflow of foreign capital, lifted India's key stock indices to close at record high on Thursday.

Initially, both key indices -- S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 -- had a gap up opening and kept rising through the day to close almost at the intra day high.

Globally, Asian markets closed on a mixed note as investors waited for the US jobs data, while European stock markets traded largely unchanged on Thursday.

Nifty50 reached a fresh record high of 17,245.50 points, while Sensex reached a record high of 57,892.37 points.

On sector-specific basis, the auto index was the sole loser during the day's trade, while realty, consumer durables, IT, and FMCG were the main gainers.

At the end of the day's trade, Sensex settled at 57,852.54, higher by 514.33 points, or 0.90 per cent, from its previous close.

Nifty closed at 17,234.15 points, higher by 157.90 points, or 0.92 per cent, from its previous close.

"Nifty reversed the losses of the previous day and nullified the bearish signal," HDFC Securities' Head of Retail Research, Deepak Jasani, said.

"Advance decline ratio has improved to much above 1:1. FPIs seem to be in a mood to keep buying Indian stocks. The Nifty keeps breaching resistances one after the other in fresh territory. Nifty could now stay in the 17,340-17,154 band for the next 1-2 sessions."

Motilal Oswal Financial Services' Retail Research Head Siddhartha Khemka said: "Going ahead, the market is likely to continue with its positive momentum as economic recovery and vaccination drive both continue their northward journey."

"Though the long term trend is positive, one cannot ignore bouts of volatility, given risk of third wave of pandemic, commodity-linked inflation, high earnings growth expectation leading to rich valuation."

Geojit Financial Services' Research Head Vinod Nair said: "Economic data is nudging the performance of core sectors like capital goods and industrials while the recent high performance of the market is also tempting investors to shift to safer defensive sectors."

"All major sectors followed the market trend while the auto sector lost ground due to weak sales."