NSE Nifty regains 5,700-mark with 33-pt gain; L&T spurts

Improved sentiment boosted investor confidence, triggering a flurry of buying activities mainly in financial, capital goods, infrastructure, pharma and tech stocks.

Renewed speculation that policymakers will take steps to revive sluggish domestic growth through monetary policy tools against the backdrop of recent Government measures gave traders further confidence. The RBI is slated to announce its credit policy early next week.

After a sluggish start, the key index mostly traded in a tight range amid volatility on the back of emerging negative cues from global markets. The market picked up steam in mid- morning session to trade in positive zone following good buying in frontline heavy-weights and beaten-down stocks.

With strong growth in Q2 earnings with robust domestic order book, L&T, India's top construction and engineering firm surprised the market and propelled it to further highs. L&T stock closed at a new 52-week high of Rs 1,671.

Asian stocks closed mixed amid uncertainty over euro- zone debt crisis and poor US corporate earnings.

The Nifty oscillated between a high of 5,721.55 and a low of 5,658.05 before ending at 5,717.15, registering a gain of 32.90 points, or 0.58 per cent, over its last close.

JP Associates, L&T, TCS, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Reliance, Cipla and Axis Bank were the top Nifty gainers. The Laggards included Bank of Baroda, Jindal Steel, Hero MotoCorp,ITC, Ambuja Cement, Power Grid, Sesa Goa, SBIN, GAIL and Lupin.

The turnover in cash segment dropped to Rs 9,293.35 crore from Rs 10,616.26 crore last Friday. Overall, 5,140.16 lakh shares changed hands in 46,63,632 trades. Total market capitalisation stood at Rs 64,61,127 crore.