Indian shares settled at all-time highs on Monday with banking and financial stocks leading broad-based gains. The sentiment was also lifted as Asian stocks hit record highs as successful coronavirus vaccine rollouts globally boosted hopes of a quick economic recovery amid new fiscal aid from Washington.

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The Sensex ended 610 points higher to its record close of 52,154 while the Nifty rose 151 points to settle at its closing high of 15,315.

In intra-day deals, the Sensex rose as much as 691 points to its fresh high of 52,236 while the Nifty rallied 177 points to its new high of 15,340.

India’s main stock indexes have gained 12 percent so far in February in a rally powered by a high-spending federal budget and stronger-than-expected December-quarter earnings reports from companies.

Broader markets were also positive with the midcap index up 1.2 percent, however, the smallcap index only rose 0.4 percent for the day.

Among sectors, the Nifty Bank and Nifty Fin Services rallied 3-3.5 percent lifting the benchmarks. However, Nifty IT, Nifty Metal and Nifty Pharma were in the red for the day.

On the Nifty50 index, the top 5 gainers belonged to the banking and financial space. Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI, Bajaj Finance and IndusInd Bank rose the most, up to 6 percent while SBI Life, HDFC Life, Dr Reddy's, TCS and Tata Steel led the losses.

Among earnings-driven moves, Deepak Nitrite and Dilip Buildcon rose over 6 percent after both companies posted higher profits. Apollo Hospitals and Motherson Sumi also rallied 13 percent and 7 percent on strong Q3.

Meanwhile, Indiabulls Housing Finance and Amara Raja shed 6 percent on weak Q3. Vodafone Idea also lost 3 percent on reporting losses in December quarter.

(Edited by : Pranati Deva)

First Published:Feb 15, 2021 3:34 PM IST