Markets end at fresh peak! Nifty settles above 11,000, Sensex at 36,139

The domestic market closed at fresh peaks with the Nifty50 sailing past the 11,000 mark, while the Sensex breaching the 36,000 level for the first time ahead of the derivative expiry of January series due on Tursday. 

Gains came after an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report showed India was set to regain the title as the world’s fastest growing major economy in 2018-19, beating China. 

IMF on Monday revised up its forecast for world economic growth and said that it expected a strong Indian economy to offset decelerating growth in China.

Gains in global markets after US lawmakers passed a short-term measure to fund the federal government through Feb. 8, ending a three-day government shutdown, also boosted investor sentiment.

Reacting to this, the S&P BSE Sensex settled at 36,139, up 342 points, while the broader Nifty ended at 11,083, up 117 points.

Both indices clocked record high levels 11 times this year.

Nifty took nearly six months to rise from 10,000 to 11,000 points, marking the fourth shortest period for the index to cover a thousand point milestone. 

In the broader market, the BSE Midcap outperformed to add over 1 per cent, while the BSE Smallcap underperformed to gain just 0.2 per cent. 

Metal stocks led gains on the NSE index, with Vedanta, Hindalco Industries climbing up to over 5 per cent. The Nifty metal index gained as much as 5.1 per cent.

Public lenders also rose, with the Nifty PSU bank index gaining 1.9 per cent.

Overseas, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.9 per cent to a fresh record peak while each of Wall Street’s main indexes hit record highs on Monday.