The NSE Nifty today gained 95.25 points to finish slightly below the 8,600-level on buying in most of the counters on the first day of the new fiscal.
Earlier, the momentum was mostly flat due to the last day of truncated week as the market is closed on Thursday and Friday on account of 'Mahavir Jayanti' and 'Good Friday'.
Later the hiccups were overcome in afternoon trade as investors picked shares mainly in banking and financials ahead of RBI policy review next week followed by stock specific action in most of counters.
Pharma, Auto, FMCG, Metal, Realty and Energy counters gained taking the key index to the crucial 8,603.40.
The broad-based 50-share Nifty opened slightly lower at 8,583.70 and hovered between 8,603.40 and 8,464.75 before closing at 8,586.25, showing a gain of 95.25 points, or 1.12 per cent.
In the Broader market, Midcap and Smallcap shares outperformed the larger counterpart, while IT segment saw profit-booking.
Indexwise, Banks gained 2.26 per cent, financials 2.00 per cent, PSU banks 2.86 per cent, Pharma 2.27 per cent, Realty 1.50 per cent, FMCG 1.34 per cent, Infra 1.04 per cent, Auto 1.03 per cent and Metal 1.00 per cent.
Stockwise, SunPharma rallied by 5.59 per cent, PNB 5.23 per cent, IndusindBk 4.43 per cent, YesBank 3.92 per cent, Kotak Bank 3.64 per cent, IDEA 3.07 per cent, ICICI bank 2.42 per cent, ITC 2.03 per cent, Tata Motor 2.67 per cent, BhartiAirtl 2.29 per cent and Reliance 1.22 per cent.
Notable losers were HCLTech 4.03 per cent, Infy 2.00 per cent, Bhel 1.98 per cent and Maruti 1.42 per cent.
Turnover in the cash segment fell to Rs 15,965.66 crore against Rs 17,526.53 crore. A total of 7,737.36 lakh shares changed hands in 70,82,262 trades. The market capitalisation at NSE stood at Rs 10,043,578 crore.
Elsewhere, Most of the Asian markets ended lower, following a mixed bag of economic data releases, while European market opened higher.
Meanwhile, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 356.07 crore yesterday as per provisional data.
