The BSE benchmark Sensex today surged nearly 105 points to close at all-time high of 21,033.97 on heavy foreign fund inflows in bluechips, amid speculation that the US Fed would maintain its monetary stimulus when they conclude a meeting today.

Continuing gains after yesterday's 359-point rally following the RBI policy, the Sensex shot up by 104.96 points, or 0.50 per cent to 21,033.97 -- eclipsing the previous record close of 21,004.96 on November 5, 2010.

The 30-share bluechip index's intra-day high of 21,206.77 was hit on January 10, 2008.

Bharti Airtel zoomed by 5.23 per cent after the company posted better-than-expected operating performance. Other contributors to the Sensex were ITC, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Dr Reddy's Lab., TCS and Bajaj Auto.

"Continued buying from FIIs and greater risk appetite of investors at higher levels is leading to this rally," said Nidhi Saraswat, Senior Research Analyst, Bonanza Portfolio.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose by 30.80 points, or 0.50 per cent, to 6,251.70, after touching the day's high of 6,269.20. Also, SX40 index, the flagship index of MCX-SX, closed 69.68 points up at 12,514.81.

Brokers said the trading sentiment continued to be bullish on expectations of liquidity enhancement after the Reserve Bank of India cut marginal standing facility (MSF) to 8.75 per cent in its monetary policy review yesterday.

A firming trend in the Asian region and higher opening in Europe before the outcome of US Federal Reserve's meeting where the USD 85 billion a month monetary stimulus is expected to be maintained, also influenced the Indian market sentiment.

Foreign funds have continued to buy domestic stocks for 18 straight sessions till yesterday, encouraging domestic participants to increase bets, experts said.

In all, all is quiet and safe for investors as of now, but the question is: will America rock the boat?

The two-day meet of FOMC, which is the policy-making arm of the US Federal Reserve, will conclude later today its ongoing meeting. Now the only thing that can spoil the mood on Dalal Street would be a negative decision on QE programme.

"We think it's highly unlikely that Fed will make any material changes to its statement. It will want to keep the boat calm and probably keep a similar language to the last FOMC meeting. I do not think it will come out with a clear statement on when the tapering is likely to start because that is a decision which is going to be data-dependent," says Geoff Lewis of JPMorgan AMC.

The recent data from the US indicates that the economy of the world's largest economy is still not in a very good shape. US consumer confidence plunged in October, thanks to the Washington budget and debt battle and the government shutdown. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index fell to 71.2 in October, down from 80.2 in September.

The all-time closing high for the index till today was 21,004 that it hit on November 5, 2010.