Fanciful Friday; Nifty zooms 54 points to hit 5,700-mark

FMCG, oil & gas, auto, pharma, bank, technology, metal and infra stocks mainly contributed to the surge.

A strong rupee underpinned the overall market sentiment. The currency soared to a five-month high of 52.85 against the dollar on the back of heavy capital inflows on policy measures and the Government's borrowing programme.

Markets are on an upsurge ever since the Government unleashed a wave of reforms this month. Incidentally, this was the fourth straight Friday when the shares posted smart gains.

After a buoyant start, the key index maintained the uptrend during most part of the session. It witnessed some profit taking towards the tail-end as investors booked profits in select pharma, bank and infra stocks, reducing some gains.

On the global front, most Asian stocks ended higher boosted by Spain's budget announcement with spending cuts to tackle the country's sovereign debt crisis.

The 50-share Nifty rallied to a high of 5,735.15 before ending at 5,703.30, registering a smart gain of 53.80 points, or 0.95 per cent, over the last close, and hitting 14-month peak.

Hindalco, Power Grid, Sun Pharma, JP Associates, Tata Motors, Bank of Baroda, Cipla, Tata Power, NTPC and Grasim were the highest percentage-wise index gainers. The top laggards include Reliance Infra, IDFC, DLF, HCL Tech, HDFC Bank, Infosys Tech, Ranbaxy, Hero MotoCorp and L&T.

The turnover in cash segment fell sharply to Rs 14,148.97 crore from Rs 18,960.07 crore yesterday. Overall, 8,128.04 lakh shares changed hands in 67,50,382 trades. Total market capitalisation stood at Rs 64,31,655 crore.