Mumbai, Jan 23 (IANS): A day after the European Central Bank (ECB) announced a mega bond buying programme, a benchmark index of Indian equities markets Friday scaled a new peak of 29,408.73 points in the intra-day trade.

The new high of 29,408.73 points surpassed the previous record of 29,060.41 points reached in Thursday's intra-day trade.

In Friday's trade, healthy buying was seen in automobile, capital goods, banking, metal and healthcare sectors. However, consumer durables scrip dipped.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 29,189.45 points, ended the trade at 29,278.84 points, up 272.82 points or 0.94 percent from the previous day's close at 29,006.02 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 29,408.73 points and a low of 29,165.56 points in the intra-day trade.

The S&P automobile index gained by 299.56 points, capital goods index surged by 221.86 points, banking index got augmented by 179.20 points, metal index moved up by 89.62 points and the healthcare index rose 69.86 points.

However, consumer durables index was down 25.47 points.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also touched a new high of 8,866.40 points from its previous record of 8,774.15 points in Thursday's intra-day trade.

It closed the day's trade with healthy gains. It had increased by 74.20 points or 0.85 percent at 8,835.60 points.

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