Sensex touches new all-time high, trades above 37,400 points

The benchmark BSE Sensex on Monday opened at an all-time high of 37,491 points while Nifty20 traded above the 11,300 mark. At 9.40 AM, Sensex was at 37,413.15 points, up by 76.30 or 0.20 per cent and Nifty was at 11,302.10 points, up by 23.75 or 0.21 per cent.

Asian share markets drifted lower on Monday while currencies kept to familiar ranges at the start of a busy week peppered with central bank meetings, corporate results and updates on U.S. inflation and payrolls.

Technology and energy shares led Japan's Nikkei down 0.7 per cent, and tech also featured in South Korea's 0.2 per cent decline.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.5 per cent and Chinese blue chips by 0.3 per cent. The week features quarterly earnings from more than 140 S&P 500 companies, including Apple Inc.

Disappointing results from Intel Corp and Twitter Inc soured the mood on the Nasdaq on Friday, though the S&P 500 <.SPX) and Dow still ended firmer for the week.

Analysts at JPMorgan cited relatively aggressive moves into "value" stocks - in particular banks - and away from shares leveraged to economic growth."Tech really began cracking on Tuesday before the floodgates opened on Friday," they wrote in a note.

"The rotation will likely continue, benefiting value categories at the expense of momentum/tech as rates are biased higher," they added. "Europe's higher weighting to banks/resource will help it vs the U.S."

The U.S. Federal Reserve meets on Tuesday and Wednesday and is widely expected to stand pat while reaffirming the outlook for further gradual rate rises.

The market is almost fully priced for a hike in September and leaning towards a further move before year-end.

A Bank of Japan policy meeting that ends on Tuesday has taken on greater importance amid talk it could tweak its massive asset-buying campaign.

Elias Haddad, a senior currency strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, doubted the BoJ would move just yet, but felt it may abandon the negative interest rate applied to accounts held by financial institutions at the central bank.

The BOJ could also modify its annual objective of accumulating 80 trillion yen ($720 billion) of Japanese government bonds, as well as potentially lifting its target yield for 10-year JGBs. Those yields recorded the highest close since January 2016 last week.