The Sensex rallied 610 points to finish above the 52,000-mark for the first time while the Nifty soared past 15,300 on Monday as investors piled into banking and finance stocks amid a bullish trend overseas.
Supportive macroeconomic data and unabated foreign fund inflows added to the momentum, traders said. After touching a record high of 52,235.97 during the day, the 30-share BSE Sensex ended 609.83 points or 1.18% up at its new closing peak of 52,154.13.
Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty soared 151.40 points or 1% to finish at a record 15,314.70. It touched an intra-day peak of 15,340.15.
Axis Bank led the Sensex gainers' chart, climbing 5.88%, followed by ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, SBI, IndusInd Bank, HDFC, Bajaj Finserv and HDFC Bank.
On the other hand, Dr Reddy's, TCS, Tech Mahindra, HUL, Asian Paints and Titan were among the laggards, sliding up to 1.77%.
"Indian market opened on a positive following upbeat peers in Asia as Nikkei 225 crossed 30,000 for first time in more than three decades with Japan's economy growing 12.7% on an annualised basis in October to December last year," said Narendra Solanki, Head- Equity Research (Fundamental), Anand Rathi.
Meanwhile, the wholesale price-based inflation rose sharply to 2.03% in January on costlier non-food manufactured items.
Indicating some signs of recovery, industrial production recorded a positive growth of 1% in December while retail inflation cooled to a 16-month low of 4.06% in January, as per data released post market hours on Friday.
Sector-wise, BSE bankex, finance, realty, industrials, telecom and healthcare indices rallied up to 3.31%, while IT, consumer durables, metal and teck ended in the red.
Broader BSE midcap and smallcap indices surged up to 1.40%. Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in China and Hong Kong were closed for the Lunar New Year holidays, while Tokyo and Seoul ended with strong gains.
Stock exchanges in Europe were also trading on a positive note in mid-session deals on optimism around the COVID-19 vaccination and the proposed $1.9 trillion stimulus in the US.
Meanwhile, the global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 1.30% higher at $63.24 per barrel. The rupee gained 7 paise to settle at 72.68 against the US dollar.