The Sensex and Nifty rose to fresh record highs in early trade today on positive global markets after US Federal Reserve Jerome Powell said a gradual approach to raising rates was best to protect the US economy and job growth. While the Sensex hit an all-time high of 38,610 rising 358 points from its previous close of 38,251, Nifty gained 101 pts to record 11,659 level intra day.

Meanwhile, the rupee gained in opening trade. The currency opened higher by 15 paise at 69.76 per dollar versus close of 69.91 on Friday. The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies lost 0.1 percent to 95.07, after slipping more than 0.5 percent in the previous session.

Of 30 Sensex stocks, 29 were trading in the green.

PowerGrid (2.83%), Yes Bank (2.10%) and Bharti Airtel (2.09%) were the top Sensex gainers.

Sensex heavyweight Reliance Industries hit an all-time high of 1291 level amid news its telecom venture Jio beat Vodafone to become the second-largest telco by revenue market share, closing the gap with market leader Bharti Airtel on this front.

BSE mid cap and small indices gained 92 points and 100 points respectively.

Banking and consumer durables stocks led the rally with the BSE Bankex rising 414.49 points or 0.77% and BSE consumer durables index gaining 169 points or 0.78%.

All 19 BSE sectoral indices were trading in the green.

Bank Nifty too rose to 28,195 level gaining nearly 360 points in early trade.

Positive leads from other Asian markets tracking weekend gains on the Wall Street after comments from US Federal Reserve Chairman in support of a gradual approach to raising rates bolstered trading sentiments, brokers said.

Market breadth was positive with 1341 stocks rising compared to 677 stocks falling on the BSE. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net of Rs 904.75 crore, while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net of Rs 75.78 crore on Friday, provisional data showed.

Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net of Rs 904.75 crore, while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net of Rs 75.78 crore on Friday, provisional data showed.

India VIX index, a measure of stock market volatility, was trading at 12.4150 level.

Higher the index value, more market volatility is expected in the short term.

Global markets

Asian shares rose on Monday, boosted by record Wall Street highs on Friday after reassuring comments from the Federal Reserve’s chairman, and as stock markets in China gained after the country’s central bank tweaked its management of the yuan.

In China, the Shanghai Composite index added 1.4 percent and the blue-chip CSI300 index rose 1.9 percent, after the People’s Bank of China late on Friday revived a “counter-cyclical factor” used to set the midpoint of the daily trading band of the yuan, in a bid to support it.

On Friday, the S&P500 index and Nasdaq Composite hit record highs, following comments from the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, who said a gradual approach to raising rates was best to protect the US economy and job growth.

The gains cemented the S&P’s longest-running bull market, as defined by some investors.