Mumbai: India's benchmark equity index hit record levels led by index-heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) -- the largest company by market cap on Tuesday surged nearly 4 per cent on the BSE after improved prospects of Jio.

Moreover, Reliance Industries (RIL), the highest contributor to Sensex gains is just short of reaching the market capitalisation of Rs 10 lakh crore. RIL will be the fist listed firm to reach the landmark size.

At 12.16 p.m., the Sensex was up 319.43 points at 40,789.13 before hitting the intra-day high of 40,816.38. The broader Nifty surged to 12,024.40, gaining 84.30 points.

Strong buying was yet again seen in telecom companies after Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea (VIL) decided to hike tariff as early as December 1.

Index leaders, in term's of gains were: IndusInd Bank, Sun Pharma, Reliance Industries, Maruti Suzuki and Yes Bank. The top losers were NTPC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, State Bank of India, Bajaj Auto and HCL Tech.