Mumbai, July 9: The sensex today clambered up to a historic 15085.22 points before deciding to settle for the night at 15,045.73 — the first time it has stayed above that rarefied level.

The red-letter day for the sensex was timed to perfection as it coincided with the 133rd anniversary of the Bombay Stock Exchange. At the close, the index was up 81.61 points, or 0.55 per cent, over Friday’s close of 14964.12

The bellwether index surged on a mix of global cues and strong local sentiment ahead of the earnings season that kicks off tomorrow even though expectations of a robust stream of numbers from India Inc in the first quarter ended June 30 were slightly muted. The Asian markets from Tokyo to Shanghai and Taiwan to Singapore were buoyant during the day with the Nikkei leaping by 0.67 per cent and Taiwan Weighted by 1.98 per cent to hit seven-year highs at the close. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.27 per cent, the Shanghai composite jumped 2.69 per cent even as the Singapore’s Strait Times index leapt 1.82 per cent.

The surge meant that the shareholder wealth in India has swelled to Rs 43.93 trillion ($1.09 trillion).

It also pitchforked ICICI Bank into a charmed club of eight companies with a market valuation of over Rs 1 trillion, on the back of the recent listing of its issue of 5.81 crore equity shares. Reliance Industries, Reliance Communications, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, NTPC, Infosys and TCS have already crossed the milestone.

Manish Sonthalia, vice-president of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, said: “There is no doubt that the market is being driven by anticipation of strong first quarter earnings. The low inflation rate has also buoyed the market. We are expecting an 18 to 20 per cent growth in corporate earnings and price to earnings (P/E) ratio to remain steady at 18 to 20.”