On global rally, markets hit 23-month high

After a promising start of 171 points, the Bombay Stock Exchange barometer pared the gains to conclude the day gaining 127.51 points or 0.73 per cent at 17,686.24--a level not seen since February 28 2008.
The 50-share Nifty of the NSE also rose further by 45.70 points or 0.87 per cent to 5,277.90.
Brokers said markets failed to sustain the opening lead as RIL continued to weigh the market for the second day,losing over half percentage points today as well.
The day saw fresh investment buying in metal counters on the back of firm trend on the London Metal Exchange where the prices hit one-year high and elsewhere. Realty stocks too were in keen demand. While the metal index surges 3.82 percent lead by Hindalco and Sterlite, the realty index rose 1.14 percent and JP Associates rose 5.79 per cent.
Bonanza Portfolio AVP Avinash Gupta said, "the market rose as there was wider investment buying support in many sectors as the prospects of global economic recovery has made investors bullish on metals and crude oil. Accordingly, metals stocks like Sterlite, Hindalco, Nalco, JSW Steel etc had significant gains today."
Following the massive gains on the Wall Street, the Asain markets rallied to closes at a 17-month high.

The Wall Street hit an over-a-year high yesterday as the US manufacturing expanded at the fastest pace in more than three years, leading to a massive spike in commodity stocks, across the globe today. Dow closed up over  155 points yesterday and Nasdaq over 32 points.
Following this, Asian markets also ended with huge gains. While Hang Seng soared by 2.09 per cent, Shanghai rose 1.16 per cent and Nikkei by 0.25 per cent-- scaling a near 17-month high. Only while the Korean Kopsi finished in the red today.
However, European markets displayed a steady trend with narrowly downward bias in their morning deals.
Among the sectoral indices, the BSE-Metal shot up by 676.15 points or 3.82 per cent and the BSE-Realty by 44.07 points or 1.14 per cent.
Midcap and small-cap shares continued to rule firm on sustained support from retail investors as BSE-Midcap shot up by 81.60 points or 1.20 pct and the BSE-Small cap by 72.55 pts or 0.85 per cent.
From the Sensex pack, Hindalco zoomed 7.39 per cent, JP Asso 5.79 per cent, Sterlite 4.57 per cent, RCom 3.51 per cent, Grasim 3.36 per cent, Sun Pharma by 3.03 per cent, Tata Steel 2.36 per cent. However, Maruti fell 2.27 per cent, Tata Motors lost 1.99 per cent, ACC 1.37 percent and NTPC 1.08 pct.
The market breadth continued to remain positive as 1,780 counters ended with gains against 1,104 in losses on the BSE.
The trading volume firmed up further to Rs 7,135.39 crore from the Monday's level of Rs 6,591.78 crore. JSW Energy was the most active share with the highest turnover of Rs 353.45 crore followed by Goderaj Prop (Rs 290.11 crore), Satyam (Rs 230.23 crore), Nalco (Rs 157.87 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs 144.76 crore).