BENGALURU, June 14 Reuters Indian shares held steady just below their alltime highs on Friday, weighed down by information technology stocks, while small and midcap stocks hit record highs for the fourth session in a row as the postelection results rally continued.

The NSE Nifty 50 was up 0.18 at 23,440.90, as of 1039 a.m. IST, less than 50 points shy of its record high. The SP BSE Sensex added 0.12 to 76,906.26, also near its record.

The IT sector dropped 0.7, the most among the 13 major subindexes. They jumped 1 on Thursday on renewed expectations that U.S. interest rate cuts are imminent.

The Nifty 50 has gained about 0.6 so far this week, after surging 3.4 last week as the results of the national elections ensured political continuity.

But its trading range has narrowed sharply to 300 points this week from about 2,000 points last week.

There has been a lack of upside momentum for most of this week so far, said Anand James, chief market strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

James, like other analysts, expects the benchmarks to trade near current levels for a few more sessions.

The broader, more domestically focussed small and midcaps rose about 0.6 each to alltime highs.

They have surged about 12 and 15, respectively, since the election results early last week, roughly double the Nifty39;s 7 gain.

Among stocks, Ambuja Cements added 2.5 after acquiring smaller rival Penna Cement in a 104.22 billion rupees 1.25 billion deal to bolster its presence in south…