Investors bid farewell to a turbulent 2015, which saw the benchmark Nifty falling over 4 per cent, its first annual fall since 2011, even as the index perked up by 50 points on the last day of trading this year.
The benchmark Nifty staged a smart rebound after a two-day lacklustre trade by a healthy 50 points surge to end above the significant 7,900 mark on the NSE here.
Hectic covering-up of short positions following expiry of December derivatives series and some value buying weighed on trade.
The change in political leadership brought much hope and cheer for the ailing economy, even as the equity culture were severely affected by unprecedented global turbulence.
However, positive vibes emanating from the apex bank's surprise rate cuts following decline in levels of inflation lifted market sentiment.
Indian market had to beat an embarrassing retreat after scaling to historic milestones during the year.
Earlier in the day, overcoming initial setback, bourses made a staged a strong comeback and maintained its bullish move throughout the session.
The 50-share Nifty opened a tad higher at 7,897.80 and hovered between 7,955.55 and 7,891.50 before finishing at 7,946.35, revealing a healthy gain of 50.10 points, or 0.41 per cent.
Among the sectoral movers, media, auto, metal, infra, financials, technology and realty counters attracted huge buying interest along with mid-caps and small-caps, while PSU bank and healthcare stocks remained under intense selling.
The biggest gainers included HDFC, Infosys, Reliance, HDFC Bank, TCS, Kotak Bank, Sun Pharma, Idea, Bharti Airtel, Zee, HCL-Tech, ITC, Coal India, Maruti, M&M and HUL.
Major laggards were Axis Bank, L&T, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, SBI, Yes Bank, Hero MotoCorp and Tech Mahindra.
Turnover in cash segment shot-up to Rs 19,475.12 crore against Rs 14,636.06 crore on Wednesday.
A total of 10,646.34 lakh shares changed hands in 64,40,205 trades. The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 98,31,658 crore.
