India's Nifty, Sensex resume rally to record highs; small-, mid-caps slide

By Bharath Rajeswaran and Kashish Tandon

BENGALURU (Reuters) -India's blue-chip indexes, Nifty 50 and Sensex hit fresh all-time highs on Wednesday, led by financials, while the broader and more domestically focussed small- and mid-caps declined.

The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 rose 0.53% to 22,474.05, while the BSE Sensex added 0.55% to 74,085.99, marking its first ever close above 74,000 mark.

Both benchmarks lost about 0.6% each during the session before recovering in the final two hours of trade.

The Nifty had earlier hit an all-time high on Monday, while the Sensex logged record high in the special trading session on March 2.

In contrast, small and mid-cap stocks fell 2% and 0.5%, extending losses to the third and second session, respectively.

Small- and mid-cap stocks have underperformed the benchmarks since the Reuters report of regulator seeking more information from the country's asset managers about risks in such funds and the mutual fund industry body AMFI asking members to moderate inflows.

The small-cap index has dropped 2.5% so far in March, while the mid-caps gained 1.08%, underperforming the Nifty 50, which added 2.23% to achieve new record highs.

"There is no surprise in the drop in small and mid-caps, because the inflows into these segments have been very high and valuations overheated," said Amit Kumar Gupta, founder of Fintrekk Capital.

While Nifty and Bank Nifty may not witness a downturn in the next few weeks, the broader markets might take a hit, Gupta added.

Financials rose 0.63%, while IT rebounded from a 1% fall to close 0.77% higher, ahead of key U.S. data and the Federal Reserve Chair's congressional testimony.

JM Financial tumbled 10.42%, a day after the Reserve Bank of India barred the company's unit from any form of financing against shares and debentures. IIFL Finance slumped 20% for a second straight session after the RBI ordered it to stop offering gold loans.

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran and Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K and Dhanya Ann Thoppil)