Mumbai, June 27 : Buoyed by strong buying once again, Sensex and Nifty surpassed the 79,000 and 24,000 levels, respectively, for the first time on Thursday.

Sensex gained 568 points to close at 79,243 while Nifty reached 24,044, after gaining 175 points ' ending at an all-time high.

Among the sectors, heavy buying was seen in the IT, oil and gas and FMCG stocks while, PSU banks, pharma, media and realty sectors ended up being top laggards.

The Nifty continued moving up as the bulls took the index to a new all-time high.

It made new all-time highs for the last three consecutive sessions, showing signs of resilience amid global sluggishness.

'The trend remains positive for the short term or until it breaks below 23,800. On the higher end, the index might move towards 24,200,' said Rupak De from LKP Securities.

According to market watchers, the Indices will remain bullish in the near-term despite the valuation concerns, and the ongoing momentum has the potential to take the Sensex to the 80,000 level.

A healthy trend in the market is that now the up move is being led by fundamentally strong large-caps in sectors like banking and telecom.

The BankNifty index experienced volatile moves, trading in a broad range with support at 52,700 and resistance at 53,100.

/IANS