The BSE benchmark Sensex on Monday scaled a new high of 33-months, despite losing early gains and ending up just 31 points as brisk selling in blue-chips like ITC, L&T and Infosys suffered damages in the last-hour trade.      

Intra-day, the Sensex had gained over 260 points before profit booking kicked in.
     
During the day, the Sensex had jumped by a whopping 261.7 points to touch 20,706.74, just 500 points short of its record high of 21,206.77 -- achieved on January 10, 2008.
     
In a similar trend, the National Stock Exchange's Nifty Index finished the day higher by 0.26 percent at 6,159.45. It had breached the 6,200 level during the day.
     
Market glance

Reliance Industries extended Friday's gain and ended 1.14 percent higher at Rs 1,017.90. RIL, which holds the maximum weight in Sensex, had jumped 2 percent on Friday.
     
Barring FMCG, technology and consumer goods, all sectoral indices on the BSE ended in the green. Pharma, financials, consumer durables, auto, metal and energy led the gains.      

With a fall of about 2 percent, ITC led the losers pack. Hero Honda lost 1.85 percent, Bharti Airtel 1.57 percent, L&T by 1.54 percent and IT bellwether Infosys 0.86 percent.
     
Other major losers were ONGC, which declined 0.89 percent, Tata Power 0.58 percent and SBI 0.15 percent.      

In the Sensex components, 14 stocks ended with the gains, while 18 companies closed in the red.
     
Among the frontline banking stocks, ICICI Bank jumped by 2 percent and HDFC 2.35 percent.
     
"In the banking sector, the credit growth, which had seen an uptick during first quarter of current fiscal on the back of increased deployment to the telecom sector, maintained its momentum in September quarter also," brokerage firm Sharekhan said in a report.
     
Tata Motors rose 1.51 percent, after the auto major said it has received good response for its fund raising plan. The company has increased the size of its institutional share sale to USD 750 million (over Rs 3,300 crore) from USD 525 million.
     
Some other auto stocks too witnessed attraction on good September sales figure. M&M was 2.41 percent up--the most in the Sensex scrips.
     
Metal stocks also saw demand, with Hindalco increasing by 0.78 percent and Tata Steel 0.28 percent. However, Sterlite lagged behind and ended nearly 2 percent lower.

On the rise in steel stock, rallying 15-40 percent in the last one month, Ravindra Deshpande, who tracks steel sector at Elara Capital, said, "The performance was mainly due to the positive sentiment of margin expansion on the back of pricing improvements and a reduction in raw material costs."
     
Other major gainers were RCom, which climbed 2.38 percent, Jaiprakash Associates 2 percent, DLF 0.76 percent and Cipla 1.33 percent.
     
Global markets

Asian bourses rose, led by mining companies and Japanese exporters, after commodity prices appreciated and Yen weakened against the US Dollar. China's benchmark Shanghai Index ended 1.72 percent higher and Hong Kong's Hang Sang Index, 1.17 percent.
     
European markets, on the other hand, were trading weaker in the afternoon session.
     
On Friday, the Wall Street had risen, led by gains in resource stocks after data in China showed a pick-up in manufacturing activity but volume was thin and concerns remain about the strength of the US economic recovery.