Mumbai, Jul 18 (IANS): The Indian benchmark indices on Thursday saw a sharp rally over renewed buying in IT stocks, ending up for the fourth straight session while touching a new all-time high.

At the closing bell, the Sensex was up 626 points or 0.78 per cent at 81,343, and the Nifty was up 187.80 points or 0.76 per cent at 24,800.

Sensex touched 81,522 and Nifty climbed to 24,837 during the intra-day trading – all-time highs.

TCS, LTIMindtree, ONGC, Bajaj Finserv, and Wipro were among the top gainers on the Nifty, while losers included Asian Paints, Hero MotoCorp, Grasim, Coal India, and Bajaj Auto.

Among sectors, bank, auto, IT, FMCG and telecom rose 0.3-2 per cent, while capital goods, metal and power stocks were down 1-3.5 per cent.

The BSE midcap and smallcap index shed around 1 per cent each.

According to market watchers, the frontline indices firmed up in the second half, reaching fresh highs driven by renewed buying in IT stocks. Investor optimism for the sector grew after strong performance reports from the country's leading IT firms in the June quarter, coupled with a weakening rupee. However, the broader market lagged the major indices due to high valuations and sectoral rotation, which is influenced by anticipated improvements in private consumption, particularly in rural areas, said market experts.

Rupak De of LKP Securities said the trend and momentum remain positive, with the index staying above critical short-term moving averages. "In the short term, the trend is likely to remain positive as long as the Nifty stays above 24,500. On the higher end, the current trend might take the index towards 25,000 in the near term," he said.