Sensex crosses 39,000-mark for first time in early trade; Nifty short of record high of 11,760

Mumbai: The BSE benchmark Sensex crossed the 39,000 mark for the first time in early trade on Monday at 39,007.95, up over 335 points ahead of Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy on 4 April. Markets are expecting a rate cut to boost growth.At 10.15 a.m., the BSE Sensex was up 315 points at 38,988 while the NSE Nifty 50 gained 75 points at 11,699. The gains were broad-based with the sectoral indices in the green, ANI reported.Nifty was trading just short of its record high of 11,760 hit in August last year.At the National Stock Exchange, the banking index was up nearly half percent.On the Sensex chart, Vedanta, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra and ICICI Bank led the rally[caption id="attachment_4416807" align="alignleft" width="380"] Representative image. Reuters[/caption]Hindalco traded high by 5.6 percent, Tata Motors 4.3 percent, Vedanta 4.2 percent and GAIL 2.6 percent. However, Indian Oil was down 3.6 percent, ONGC 2.2 percent, Indiabulls Housing Finance 2.1 percent and Coal India 1.8 percent.Meanwhile other Asian stocks too rallied with market sentiment supported by positive Chinese factory data and sign of progress in US-China trade talks.The Caixin/Markt purchasing managers and index (PMI) showed the manufacturing sector returning to growth. The United States and China said they made progress in trade talks that concluded on Friday in Beijing.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 earlier, PTI reported.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.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 percent.The broader NSE Nifty closed at 11,623.90, capping off the financial year with a gain of 14.93 percent.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.(With agency inputs)