New Delhi, Jul 18 (IANS): Domestic equities extended their record high-runs with Nifty touching a new high of 19,819 intraday, said Siddhartha Khemka, Head-Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

The index opened higher and traded sideways to close with marginal gains of 38 points at 19,749 levels. The broader market, however, underperformed with the Nifty mid-cap 100 ending flat to negative while Nifty small-cap 100 was down -0.9 per cent.

Among sectors, IT was the top gainer up 1 per cent, followed by oil & gas. Continuing its current record-breaking rally, Nifty crossed the 19,800-mark intraday -- just 200 points shy of the 20K zone.

“We expect the gradual up move in the market to continue given the positive macro and micro factors. We suggest investors to look for buy on dips strategy as the Q1 earnings season is expected to be healthy," Khemka said.

Vikram Kasat, Head Advisory, Prabhudas Lilladher, said the Sensex and Nifty continued their record-breaking rally on Tuesday, reaching new all-time high levels, amid fresh foreign fund inflows and buying in banking counters. Sensex ended nearly 205 points higher at 66,795.14.

A positive trend in the US markets on Monday also contributed to the domestic benchmark indices optimism. The global market construct continues to be favourable for the bulls. Healthy consolidation can be the near-term trend, he said.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said the bulls continued to lift the market to new heights, but volatility emerged in the second half due to concerns over valuation. Rapid fall in the dollar index and a slide in the US 10-year yield is supporting liquidity in emerging markets.

While disappointing economic growth in China and improvement in the US market outlook are drawing attention to the Indian market with the IT sector as the contra bet.