Markets at record high; Sensex rises 143 points, Nifty crosses 13,300-mark

New Delhi: Markets opened flat on Monday amid firm global cues. The equity benchmarks hit record high in early morning trade with the NSE Nifty crossing 13,300-mark for the first time led by gains in energy, metal and PSU banks.

In early trade, the BSE Sensex rose 143.64 points or 0.32 percent to 45,223.19. Similarly, the NSE Nifty jumped 46.75 points or 0.35 percent to touch 13,305.30.

Major gainers in the Sensex pack were ONGC, NTPC, ITC, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, HUL, LT, IndusInd Bank, HDFC, Axis Bank, Ultrachem and SBI, rising upto 2.50 percent. On the other had, major losers were HDFC Bank, Titan, Kotak Bank, TCS, HCL Tech, M&M, Bajaj Finserve, Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Auto, falling upto 1.38 percent.

Markets ended in the green on Friday tracking strong buying sentiment in financial stocks after RBI's Monetary policy announcement with the Sensex breaching the 45,000-level for the first time. The BSE Sensex rallied 446.90 points or 1 percent higher at 45,079.55. Similarly, the NSE Nifty touched a new high of 13,280.05 during the session, before finishing 124.65 points or 0.95 percent higher at 13,258.55 -- its record closing high.

MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.3% following four straight sessions of gains. It is still up about 16% so far this year, the best since a 33% jump in 2017. China`s blue-chip index dropped 0.8%, largely ignoring strong export data, while Hong Kong`s Hang Seng was down 1.8%. Japan`s Nikkei declined 0.4% while Australian shares were up 0.4%. E-Mini futures for the S&P 500 were down 0.2% after starting higher, a Reuters report said.

U.S. crude was off 24 cents at $46.02 per barrel and Brent was down 26 cents at $48.99. Brent has lost about a quarter of its value this year so far. Spot gold, which hit a record high of $2,072.49 an ounce, was last at $1,837.7, still up a hefty 21% this year, Reuters added.