Mumbai, December 11: Equity benchmark Sensex breached a new milestone of 70,000 points before closing 102 points higher, while Nifty settled just shy of the 21,000 mark on Monday, driven by gains in banking, IT and metal shares. After a gap-up opening, the 30-share index rose to a record intra-day high of 70,057.83 points. Later, it shed some of the gains to close at 69,928.53 points, showing a rise of 102.93 points or 0.15 per cent.

As many as 18 Sensex shares closed in the green, 11 declined, and one settled unchanged. The broader Nifty also hit its record trading high of 21,026.10 amid early gains in global markets. The 50-share index gained 27.70 points or 0.13 per cent to settle just below the 21,000 level at 20,997.10, its all-time closing high. Among Sensex shares, Ultratech Cement jumped the most by 3.04 per cent. Nestle rose 1.3 per cent, Power Grid 1.05 per cent and Tata Motors 0.85 per cent. Gains in IndusInd Bank, HCL Tech, TCS, Tech Mahindra, NTPC, ITC, JSW Steel and Tata Steel helped the barometer scale a fresh high. Stock Market Opens Positively: Nifty, Sensex Break All Records on Monday Opening

Axis Bank fell the most by 1.26 per cent, M&M by 0.99 per cent and Hindustan Unilever by 0.67 per cent. Maruti, Bajaj Finserv, Bharti Airtel, and HDFC Bank and Infosys also declined. "The market crossed 70,000 levels today, while the broader market outperformed the main indices. However, profit booking was evident at higher levels as traders anticipated clues from tomorrow's significant data releases on inflation from the US and India, as well as the IIP," Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said.

Investors will be closely watching the upcoming FOMC meeting tomorrow for clues about potential future rate cuts while expecting to keep rates the same this time, Nair added. The US Federal Reserve will announce its next move on interest rates on Wednesday. The US government will report on consumer inflation on Tuesday. In the broader market, BSE LargeCap advanced by 0.21 per cent, BSE MidCap by 0.91 per cent, while SmallCap rose by 0.71 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, BSE Commodities rose by 1.16 per cent, BSE Metal by 1.1 per cent, BSE Services by 0.95 per cent, BSE Capital Goods by 0.76 per cent, BSE Utilities by 0.67 per cent, and BSE Auto by 0.48 per cent. However, BSE Healthcare dropped 0.38 per cent and Oil & Gas by 0.15 per cent. On the Nifty scaling 21,000 level, Rupak De, Senior Technical analyst at LKP Securities, said, "The Nifty traded mostly sideways as traders stayed on the sidelines at the beginning of a data-packed week. There's a strong resistance at 21,000, with call writers actively building positions. A decisive breakthrough above 21,000 is necessary to resume the uptrend. Until then, it's anticipated that the market will consolidate within a broader range". Stock Markets Hit New Peaks as RBI Upgrades Growth Forecast

Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed. Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.8 per cent, and the Shanghai Composite added 0.7 per cent, while Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index gained 1.5 per cent. In Europe, Germany's DAX was unchanged, and the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.2 per cent. In London, the FTSE 100 was down 0.4 per cent. Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) have turned bullish, investing Rs 26,505 crore into domestic equities in the first six trading sessions of December.

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