Sensex surges to new high, Nifty above 11,600

Mumbai: The BSE benchmark Sensex rallied over 265.54 points to trade at 38,938.45 in early trade on Monday, driven by sustained buying mainly in metal, auto and financial stocks amid positive global cues.

On the Sensex chart, Vedanta, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra and ICICI Bank led the rally. The broader NSE Nifty was higher by 62.60 points at 11,686.50 in early deals.

Asian markets were trading positively amid optimism over China-US trade talks and expansion in manufacturing activity in China in March.

The 30-share Sensex opened on a positive note at 38,858.88 and rose to a high of 38,960.28 in early deals. The gauge, however, pared some gains and was trading at 38,938.45, higher by 265.54 points. Similarly, the NSE Nifty started off on a high note at 11,665.20 and hit a high of 11,699.70 in opening deals.

In Asia, South Korea’s KOSPI rose 1 per cent, Japan’s Nikkei gained more than 2 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 1.62 per cent.

China and the US gave signs of some progress in their last week’s discussions on the trade tariff tussle, with another round of talks scheduled to be held this week in Washington.

The BSE Sensex had risen over 127 points to close at 38,672.91 on Friday — the last trading day of fiscal 2018-19 during which the benchmark posted a rise of 17.30 per cent. The broader NSE Nifty closed at 11,623.90, capping off the financial year with a gain of 14.93 per cent.

Investors’ wealth zoomed Rs 8.83 lakh crore during 2018-19, with the market capitalisation (m-cap) of BSE-listed companies reaching Rs 1,51,08,711.01 crore.