Indian benchmark equity indices, the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty 50, started the week on a strong note on Monday, extending Friday’s gains on sustained buying in capital goods, industrials, banks, financial sector, metal, realty, healthcare and pharma stocks.

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Positive sentiments in global markets on hopes of rapprochement between the US and China along with ebbing concerns related to the Turkish lira crash helped upbeat mood.

The Sensex and the Nifty 50, opened at record high, tracking positive global cues with the 50-share broader NSE index starting above 11,500, while the 30-share BSE index crossing its earlier record level of 38,076. The Sensex opened at 38,075.07 and the Nifty 50 began at 11,502.

L&T shares surged over 4 percent in initial trade, following reports of the diversified conglomerate’s board meeting on Thursday to consider a share buyback proposal. Infosys was down 3.31 percent after IT firm announced its CFO M D Ranganath's resignation on Saturday.

Other major gainers were Coal India, Yes Bank, ONGC, NTPC, while TCS was another laggard.

Shares of Reliance Industries were also higher over a percent on reports that China's Alibaba Group Holding was in talks with Reliance Retail to form a mega Indian retail joint venture, with an investment of at least $5 billion.

Except IT and Teck, all BSE sectoral indices were trading higher led by Capital Goods rose over 2.5 percent. Energy, Healthcare, Industrials, Metal, Realty surged over a percent.

On the NSE, Nifty Bank surged over half a percent, trading at 28,302. Metal, Pharma, PSU Bank also surged over a percent.

Midcaps joined the broader rally. Nifty MidCap was trading higher at 0.60 percent, while the BSE MidCap was higher at 0.83 percent. Large Cap surged 0.65 percent.

The sentiment further got a big boost with the Indian rupee opening stronger at 69.83 against the dollar. The home currency settled at its lowest closing level of 70.16 on Thursday, after touching an all-time low of 70.39-40 per dollar.

Asian shares were largely higher with Hong Kong's Hang Seng up by nearly 300 points or a percent. Japan's Nikkei edged lower.

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First Published:Aug 20, 2018 10:06 AM IST