Chill gives way to warming on Street; Nifty vaults 101 points

Stockmarket posted its first comprehensive rally of the New Year as the benchmark CNX Nifty spurted by over 100 points on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) today on the back of robust buying in heavyweights in IT, bank and energy counters.
Reversing days of weak trend and selling, shares jumped on optimism generated by the better-than-expected Q3 Infosys results, which led to spike in IT stocks, amidst easing worries over liquidity on indications that US Fed may go slow on stimulus tapering following dismal jobs data.
Market players sidelined weaker industrial output (IIP) number, which contracted to 2.1 per cent in November - the lowest in six months - ahead of key inflation data and hoped RBI would continue to hold rates in support of growth.

Shares of small-cap companies also gained, while mid- cap and pharma counters witnessed profit-taking.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 68.16 crore last Friday, as per provisional data from the stock exchange.
The market resumed higher amid firm Asian cues and easing concern over the pace of withdrawal of the US Central bank's bond buying programme. The key index briefly lost momentum but bounced back to hit fresh intra-day highs during afternoon before ending with sharp gains.

The 50-share Nifty hovered between a high of 6,288.20 and a low of 6,189.55 before ending at 6,272.75, a gain of 101.30 points, or 1.64 per cent, over the previous close.

Major gainers were TCS, HCL Tech, ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank, DLF, Larsen, Infosys, ONGC, Reliance and Axis Bank. Key losers included Ranbaxy, Lupin, Tata Power and Sun Pharma.
Turnover in the cash segment dropped to Rs 10,528.28 crore from Rs 13,012.02 crore last Friday. A total of 5,455.88 lakh shares changed hands in 53,67,240 trades, while market capitalisation stood at Rs 68,38,342 crore.