Markets hit record closing high; Sensex surges 529 points, Nifty above 12000

Amid buying across the sectors, Indian indices closed at record high on the first day of the week on strong note. The Sensex closed up 529.82 points or 1.31% at 40889.23, while Nifty ends up 159.40 points or 1.34% at 12073.80. About 1384 shares have advanced, 1088 shares declined, and 201 shares are unchanged. 

Among major gainers on the Nifty include Bharti Airtel, Bharti Infratel, Tata Steel, Hindalco Industries and Grasim Industries, while losers were ONGC, Yes Bank, BPCL and GAIL. All the sectoral indices ended in the green led by the metal, auto, bank, pharma, IT, FMCG and energy.

The benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty also crossed psychological marks with the 30-share BSE Sensex gained over 450 points to hit a new all-time high of 40857.73, while the broader 50-share NSE Nifty gained over a percent to go past the 12,000-mark. All the sectoral indices are trading higher led by metal, infra, pharma and PSU banks.

The benchmark equity index got a boost in sync with global markets over reports that US and China may soon reach a trade deal ending their 16-month-long costly trade war.

At 1.50 pm, the Sensex was up 464.53 points at 40,823.94 after hitting its life-time high of 40,845.86 earlier in the day. The broader Nifty also surpassed the 12,000-mark led by index-heavyweights like Reliance Industries and Infosys.

The top Sensex gainers were Bharti Airtel, advancing over 5 per cent, followed by Tata Steel, Vedanta, IndusInd Bank, HFDC Bank. On the Nifty50, 43 scrips gained while seven traded lower.

During early hours on Monday, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 216 points at 40,576 while the Nifty 50 gained by 58 points to 11,972 at 10:15 am. All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange except for Nifty media were in the green with Nifty metal up by 2.17 per cent and realty by 1.36 per cent.

Tata Steel gained by 2.7 per cent, JSW Steel by 2.5 per cent, Hindalco by 2.1 per cent and Vedanta by 1.6 per cent. Even telecom majors witnessed handsome gains with Bharti Airtel up by 4 per cent, Bharti Infratel by 2.8 per cent and Vodafone Idea by 1.5 per cent. 

Asian shares also made guarded gains as investors hoped for some progress in the US-China trade dispute. MSCI`s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan bounced by 0.8 per cent while Japan`s Nikkei firmed by 0.9 per cent while Shanghai blue chips rose by 0.4 per cent.