Markets staged a spectacular rally on the back of frantic across the board buying amid short covering as the benchmark CNX Nifty zoomed by a massive 100 points and settled above the 6,000 level on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) today.
Reliance Industries spearheaded the rally in bluechips with a sharp 5.32 per cent spike after the petrochem giant announced a new gas discovery in the D6 block in KG Basin.
FMCG, financials, healthcare, technology, infra, metal and auto shares also contributed to the surge.
After overcoming initial sluggishness due to lacklustre overseas sentiment amid modest selling, the key index suddenly regained momentum and witnessed heavy bouts of buying in all sectors. The buoyancy was maintained throughout the session with strong support coming from European peers.
Hectic short-covering ahead of expiry week on Thursday and robust foreign institutional investor (FII) inflows boosted the overall market sentiment, traders said.
Despite macro-economic concerns, FIIs have pumped in more than Rs 18,000 crore (about USD 3.4 billion) into the Indian equity market so far this month.
Elsewhere in Asia, sentiment continued to be dampened by speculation over US Fed's early exit from the policy stimulus measures. Japan's benchmark index Nikkei-225 lost another 3 per cent over uncertainty in the Japanese Government bond market, while rest of Asian stocks ended mixed.
European stocks are higher in early trade on upbeat German data. UK and US markets were shut for a public holiday.
The 50-issue Nifty hit a high of 6,099.90 and a low of 5,975.55 before concluding at 6,083.15, posting a sharp rise of 99.60 points, or 1.66 per cent, over its last close.
IndusInd Bank, RIL, Sun Pharma, Jindal Steel, Bharti Airtel, Ranbaxy, Power Grid, Hindalco, UltrTech and HDFC were among the prominent Nifty gainers. Key laggards included BPCL, Cipla, Maruti, Lupin, M&M, Bank of Baroda and Ambuja Cement.
Turnover in the cash segment dropped to Rs 9,254.83 crore from Rs 10,761.24 crore last Friday. A total of 4,301.18 lakh shares changed hands in 51,15,568 trades. Market capitalisation stood at Rs 66,06,015 crore.
