The Sensex briefly crossed 39,000 mark as stock markets opened with a buoyant note on Monday when the new financial year kicked in ahead of the general elections.

The gains were broad based with most sectoral indices in the green. At the National Stock Exchange, the auto index was up 1.7 per cent and banking index 0.4 per cent.

At 11:15 am, the BSE S & P Sensex was up 265 points at 38,937 while the NSE Nifty 50 gained 62 points at 11,686.

Hindalco traded high by 5.6 per cent, Tata Motors 4.3 per cent, Vedanta 4.2 per cent and GAIL 2.6 per cent.

However, Indian Oil was down 3.6 per cent, ONGC 2.2 per cent, Indiabulls Housing Finance 2.1 per cent and Coal India 1.8 per cent.

Market experts said many traders were going by opinion polls, which show the current government is likely to return to power after the general elections for which the polling will begin on April 11.

Meanwhile, other Asian stocks too rallied with market sentiment supported by positive Chinese factory data and signs of progress in US-China trade talks. The Caixin/Markit purchasing managers' index (PMI) showed manufacturing sector returning to growth.

The United States and China said they made progress in trade talks that concluded on Friday in Beijing.

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