Mumbai, Sept. 24: Stocks and the rupee continued their triumphant march on Monday.

Led by the Reliance pack and other heavyweights, the sensex came close to the 17000- mark, only to finish at a new high of 16845.83, a gain of 282 points over Friday’s close.

The strength in the equity markets rubbed off on the Indian currency, which finished at a fresh nine-year peak of 39.77 against the dollar. Dealers, however, said its gain was limited because of suspected intervention by the RBI.

After opening strong at 39.86 a dollar, it rallied to the day’s high of 39.76, a level not seen since May 11, 1998.

On Dalal Street, shares of both the Ambani brothers’ group companies attracted huge interest.

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries hit a life-time intra-trade high of Rs 2,375 on news that the company had struck oil in the D4 block of the Krishna Godavari basin.

Younger brother Anil Ambani’s companies were also not left out of the action, with Reliance ADA G’s market capitalisation crossing Rs 2,00,000 crore ($50 billion) — the fastest to reach the milestone in terms of years of existence.

The surge in valuations of the Reliance ADAG group came after Reliance Capital, Reliance Energy, Reliance Natural Resources and Reliance Communications hit new highs.

Moreover, after Fed chairman Ben Bernanke lowered interest rates last week, market circles believe the RBI will also do the same, a positive for sectors such as banks, real estate and automobiles.

“There has been a lot of action in auto, banking and real estate stocks after the US rate cut,” said Harendra Kumar, the head of research at ICICI Direct.

The sensex opened at 16697.89, higher than Friday’s close of 16564.23. Despite some volatility, it rallied to a new intra-day high of 16869.64 before ending at 16845.83, a sharp rise of 281.60 points. In five sessions, the sensex has, therefore, gained more than 1341.40 points or 8.65 per cent. The Nifty closed, for the first time, above 4,900 at 4,932.20.