Mumbai, Jan 14 (IANS): Sensex on Tuesday logged a fresh all-time high of 41,903.36 despite a sharp rise in inflation amid already slowing economic activity in the country.

Retail inflation shot to a five-and-a-half-year high of 7.35 per cent in December, breaching the central bank's outer limit target of 6 per cent, sparking fears of stagflation.

At 10.04 a.m. the Sensex was down 20.66 points at 41,839.03. It opened at 41,883.09 and advanced to touch the intra-day high of 41,903.36 and a low of 41,770.90.

The broader Nifty was trading at 12,334.95, higher by 5.40 points.

Foreign Portfolio investors (FPIs) purchased stocks worth Rs 68.24 crore on Monday while its domestic counterparts bought Rs 47.17 crore worth of scrips.

The top gainers on the BSE were Tata Steel, TCS, Hero MotoCorp, HCL Tech, ITC and Mahindra and Mahindra.

The laggards were the index-heavyweights like HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.