Taking a breather from two days of heavy selling, equities staged a strong comeback today as a wave of frantic buying lifted NSE benchmark Nifty by 84 points to reclaim the key 7,400 mark.
Bulls re-entered the market with a vengeance, snapping a two-session slide with frenzied buying across sectors, predominantly in recently battered infrastructure, capital goods, banking and realty.
Moreover, aggressive short-covering and highly positive overseas sentiment also supported the recovery momentum to some extent.
Asian markets were unsettled by fresh concerns about China's economy following the release of its GDP data, which grew by 6.9 per cent in 2015 -- its lowest level in 25 years.
After a strong start on the back of firm buying in heavyweights supported by higher rupee sentiment, the indices maintained its strong momentum throughout the session.
With a long earnings calendar ahead packed with big names and uncertainty in Chinese equities, the rally is just another dead cat bounce (that is, temporary), a trader commented.
The 50-share Nifty resumed at 7,381.80 and oscillated between 7,462.75 and 7,364.15 before finishing at 7,435.10, revealing a healthy spike of 84.10 points or 1.14 per cent.
Barring technology, all sectoral indices ended in positive zone along with mid-cap and small-cap.
The major sectoral gainers were infra, up by 2.76 per cent, realty (1.91 per cent), Nifty Bank (1.66 per cent), energy (1.54 per cent), auto (1.27 per cent), pharma (1.16 per cent), Nifty PSU bank (1.08 per cent), metal (0.60 per cent) and FMCG (0.18 per cent), while technology fell 0.19 per cent.
Reliance, HDFC, Tata Motors, L&T, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Adani Ports, HDFC Bank, Idea, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Yes Bank and Sun Pharma were among the prominent index gainers.
The key losers included ITC, M&M, Power Grid, Maruti, Wipro, Tech-M, HCL-Tech, Asian Paints and IndusInd Bank.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth Rs 1,203.84 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.
Turnover in cash segment fell to Rs 16,294.67 crore from Rs 18,381.85 crore yesterday. A total of 9,448.31 lakh shares changed hands in 76,83,418 trades.
The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 90,54,612 crore.
