Nifty ends above 8500; Infosys leads

Mumbai: Global cues such as policy stimulus in China and Europe enhanced risk appetite across the markets that pushed benchmarking indices to record highs on Monday.

China surprised global markets by cutting interest rates for the first time in over two years.

Brokers said that the short-coverings ahead of the expiry of November contract on Thursday and rolling over of positions to next series also aided the market sentiment. IT, Metal, Realty, Banking and Teck scrips attracted buying while some refinery and pharma stocks saw selling.

Both the indices - Sensex, Nifty -registered an all-time high of 28,542 and 8,535, respectively in intra-day trades. At the close, Sensex reported a gain of 165 points at 28,499 and Nifty up 53 points at 8,530.

Interestingly, Infosys (3.1%) and ICICI Bank (2.5%) contributed to about 120 points to Sensex. However, the broader markets underperformed with mid and smallcap indices closed 0.3 per cent each. The other blue chips that gained include SBI (1.1%) and Hero MotoCorp (1.7%).

The investors assume that the government would push for reforms like GST, disinvestment, amending the land acquisition laws etc, in the coming Parliament session.

Metal shares surged on China news include: Tata Steel gained 3 per cent, Hindalco Industries 3.3 per cent, Jindal Steel up 4.2 per cent.