Mumbai, July 26 (IANS): Indian equity indices closed in the green on Friday following broad based buying in all segments of the markets.

During the day, National Stock Exchange (NSE) benchmark Nifty made a new all-time high of 24,861. Sensex also closed near an all-time high.

At closing, Sensex was up 1,292 points or 1.62 per cent at 81,332 and Nifty was up 428 points or 1.76 per cent at 24,834.

Buying was also seen in the midcap and smallcap stocks. Nifty midcap 100 index is up 1,026 points or 1.81 per cent at 57,768 and the Nifty smallcap 100 index is up 180 points or 0.97 per cent at 18,854.

Among the sectoral indices, Auto, IT, PSU Bank, Fin service, pharma, FMCG, metal and realty were major gainers.

Twenty-nine out of 30 shares in the Sensex closed in the green.

Bharti Airtel, Wipro, Sun Pharma, Tata Steel, HCL Tech, JSW Steel, Infosys, M&M, ITC, Bajaj Finance and Tata Motors were the top gainers. Nestle was the only loser in the BSE benchmark.

The stock market started on a positive note on Friday. After the first trading hour, Sensex was up by 300 points and Nifty was up by around 100 points.

Shrey Jain Founder and CEO, SAS Online said, "The Indian stock market made a strong comeback. This upward surge was fuelled by impressive Q1 results. All sectoral indices attracted significant buying interest, with the Auto and IT indices hitting record highs. The midcap index also recorded a notable 2 per cent increase."

"Looking ahead, we anticipate the market to maintain its upward momentum, with earnings-driven, stock-specific movements influencing the intraday action. Overall, a "buy on dips" strategy is advisable in the current market scenario," he added.