Mumbai, Sep 24: The equity benchmarks surged to a new high today with the BSE Sensex crossing the 60,000 milestones for the first time ever and trading at 60,193.18, up 307.82 points or 0.51 percent.

Similarly, the NSE benchmark index Nifty too was moving towards the 18,000 marks and trading at 17,909.55, up 86.60 or 0.49 percent.

Commenting on the development, Sandeep Bharadwaj, CEO, Retail, IIFL Securities, said, ‘Expectations of solid economic recovery and sustained growth in the next couple of years is keeping the bulls enthused. Also from a global funds perspective, India remains an attractive destination, especially in the China+1 scenario. Having said that retail investors must have a diversified portfolio at this stage to face any kind of volatility.”

Among the pack of 30 stocks at BSE, Tata Steel, Hindustan Unilever, SBI, Bajaj Finance, Mahindra and Mahindra were among the top draggers while HCL Technology, Infosys, Asian Paint, Tech Mahindra were among the top gainers.

AT NSE Nifty, JSW Steel, Hindalco, Bajaj Finance, SBI Life Insurance, Tata Steel were among the top losers while Asian Paints, HCL Technology, Wipro, Grasim, Infosys were among the top gainers.

Today, the market had closed in green territory, with Sensex gaining 958 points while Nifty jumping 276.30 points.

Both the benchmark indices had touched a fresh record high-level intraday.

At the close of the session, the 30 share BSE Index gained 958.03 points or 1.63 percent at 59,885.36 percent while NSE Nifty jumped 276.30 points or 1.57 percent at 17,822.95. (UNI)