Sensex up 314 pts on Budget hopes, logs best quarter in 5 yrs

The Sensex today wrapped up the best quarterly gain in almost five years after rallying 314 points today on hopes of strong economic reforms in the first budget under the Narendra Modi government.
Fall in global crude oil prices also boosted the market sentiment to some extent, dealers said.
ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro, ITC, ONGC, HDFC, Sun Pharma, SBI, TCS, Infosys and HDFC were the major gainers in Sensex that ended at nearly two-week high levels today.
The BSE Sensex resumed higher at 25,179.55 and firmed up further to a high of 25,460.96 before settling at 25,413.78, its best closing since June 17. It notched up a rise of 313.86 points or 1.25 per cent, today. It had gained over 37 points on Friday.

"Now, the countdown has begun for the Union Budget and market participants are eyeing pre-budget rally," said Jayant Manglik, President-retail distribution, Religare Securities.
For the quarter ended June 30, the Sensex rose 3,027.51 points or 13.5 per cent on the back of robust inflows as the BJP government stormed to power at the Centre after polls.

This was the best quarter since the index rose by 18 per cent in September 2009 quarter.
The BSE index gained about 1,196 points in June alone.
Meanwhile, the NSE 50-share Nifty rose by 102.55 points or 1.37 per cent, to end at 7,611.35 today.

Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 182.55 crore on last Friday as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
Second-tier counters attracted good retail investors buying support and their indices outperformed the Sensex.
Asian stocks firmed up ahead of packed week of economic data. Key indices in China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan rose by 0.44 per cent to 0.93 per cent while indices in China and Singapore fell by 0.13 per cent to 0.47 per cent.
US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for August delivery fell 26 cents to USD 105.48 and Brent crude eased 22 cents to USD 113.08 per barrel in afternoon trade.