Equities sustain rally for 2nd day, Sensex above 14K

Markets buoyed by positive opening of European markets

Even as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s “pep-talk” while replying to a debate in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday had soothed investor nerves by saying the Government’s intent to ensure moderate interest rates, the positive opening of the European markets — which opens after Indian bourses — also gave further momentum to the market. So much so, the BSE bellwether index could sustain above the 14,000 level, while the Nifty too could rise over 4200 level, besides broader indices outperforming key benchmark indices.

And the rally was led by infrastructure including capital goods and power, metal, oil & gas and realty stocks which surged between up to eight per cent this day, while all the sectoral indices ended in the green.

The popular Sensex at BSE was up 399.54 points or 2.88 per cent to close at 14,253.54 points.  It swung between the day’s high of 14,299.54 and the day’s low of 13,891.04 points.

The broader based S&P CNX Nifty at NSE made a gain of 122.10 points or 2.97 per cent to settle at 4,233.50 during the closing this day. 

BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 5431 crore, which is much higher than Rs 4323 crore on Tuesday.  The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was strong with as many as 2,020 shares rose as compared with 542 stocks that fell and a total of 95 shares remained unchanged. 

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 4.15 per cent and the BSE Small-Cap index shot up 4.56 per cent, in effect outperforming the Sensex.

Meanwhile during the day in bourses abroad, key benchmark indices in France, Germany and UK were up by between 1.41 to 1.74 per cent, while the same in China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korean, Singapore and Taiwan were up by about 0.08 to 2.55 per cent.

Back on the domestic front, RIL which led the day’s rally rose 4.35 per cent to Rs 1,890 during the intra-day trade on bargain hunting after a recent sharp fall but closed at Rs 1,875, which again is a rise of 3.52 per cent from the previous closing.