NEW DELHI, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- India's stock markets touched new highs Tuesday, with equity benchmark index Sensex crossing 36,000 and Nifty breaching 11,000 level for the first time.

The flagship BSE Sensex, in fact, surged 159.98 points to touch 36,017, breaking its previous record high of 35,827.70 Monday.

The gains were mostly led by banking, IT, metal and capital goods stocks.

The stock markets were cheered up by the International Monetary Fund that has projected India's growth at 7.4 percent in 2018.

Last year, India's economy went through a slowdown following the sudden scrapping of high value currency notes and implementation of goods and services tax, a unified tax.