The BSE benchmark Sensex surged over 300 points to record high of 39,000 points and the NSE Nifty 50 Index surpassed 11,712 level on the first day of the new fiscal year on Monday, April 1, driven by sustained buying mainly in metal, auto and financial stocks amid positive global cues.
Today morning at 10:23 am, the Sensex was up 347.48 points or 0.90 percent at 39020.39, and the Nifty up 88.80 points or 0.76 percent at 11712.70. On the Sensex chart, Vedanta, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra and ICICI Bank led the rally.
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. However, the gauge pared some gains and was trading at 38,938.45, higher by 265.54 points. In a similar way, 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 percent, Japan's Nikkei gained more than 2 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index climbed 1.62 percent.
The US and China 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.
(Inputs from agencies)
