It was a spectacular session for the markets as it opened on a strong note and sustained at higher levels through the day. In late trade, it shot up to the roof and gained further; the Nifty touched 5100 mark and the Sensex remained above 17300. Capital Goods, realty, oil & gas, banking, power and metal stocks played the key role today. Midcap and small cap maintained upmove for the whole day. Market breadth was strong. On the global front, Asian markets ended mixed. Europe were trading mixed at the time of writing market report.

The Sensex has hit an intraday high of 17,366.19 and low of 17,079.94 before closing the day at 17,353.54, up 2.21% or 375.19 points. The Nifty surged by 2.07% or 103.5 points to settle at 5115.25 and hit high/low of 5118.55 and 4999.60, respectively. Market breadth was positive; about 1871 shares have advanced, 1026 shares declined, and 191 shares remained unchanged.

Midcap and small cap stocks also finished higher, both indices were up 1.3% each. Midcap stocks like Mercator Lines, Lupin, Madras Alumini, Triveni Engg, Ashapura Mine, Bajaj Hind, Tanla Solutions, Monsanto India, Nava Bharat Ven, Shree Renuka and Castrol were up nearly 6-11%.

Biggest gainers were Hindalco, Reliance Communications, L&T, Reliance and PNB while losers - Satyam, HUL, Tata Motors, Dr Reddy's Labs and Hero Honda.

Capital goods stocks outperformed the markets led by Triveni Engg, Crompton Greaves, Kalpataru Power, Larsen, Alstom Projects, BHEL and Kirloskar Bros. The BSE Capital Goods Index went up by 3.46% or 454.74 points at 13,600.80.

Realty stocks rallied higher, index up 3.41% or 264.87 points at 8,042.52 due to Phoenix Mills, Omaxe, HDIL, Parsvnath, Akruti City, Unitech and DLF.

Oil and gas stocks also surged as the buying interest seen in Reliance, RNRL, Petronet LNG, Essar Oil, Cairn India, ONGC and GAIL. The BSE Oil & Gas Index closed at 11,205.76, up 2.65% or 288.84 points.

Banking stocks like PNB, Yes Bank, Kotak Mahindra, Bank of India, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank gained momentum. The BSE Bankex moved up by 209.49 points or 2.44% to settle at 8,806.01.

Power stocks fully charged up, BSE Power Index rose by 2.12% or 68.61 points at 3,303.13 due to buying in Crompton Greaves, Areva T&D, Tata Power, Suzlon Energy, Punj Lloyd, Reliance Infra, Torrent Power and Reliance Power.

Metal stocks like Hindalco, NALCO, JSW Steel, Jindal Steel, Sesa Goa and Mah Seamless have shined. The BSE Metal Index climbed by 305.19 points or 1.86% at 16,740.37.

Telecom stocks including Reliance Comm, Idea Cellular, MTNL, Tata Comm, Tata Teleservices, Spice Comm and Bharti Airtel also joined the bulls party.

Technology stocks continued yesterday's upmove further as the Indian Rupee remained above 42 per dollar and was trading at 42.43 at the time of writing report. The BSE IT Index risen by 1.33% to close at 4,486.36 due to strong buying in Infosys, Patni Computer, TCS, Wipro and Tech Mahindra.

The BSE Healthcare Index finished at 4,285.99, up 0.79% on the back of sweet pills from Lupin, Matrix Lab, Aventis Pharma, Divis Labs, Panacea Biotech, GSK Pharma and Cipla.

Auto Index closed marginally higher at 4,730.24, up 0.24%. Auto stocks like Apollo Tyres, Escorts, Maruti Suzuki, Tube Investment, MRF, Punj Tractors and Ashok Leyland gained.

Most active counters on the bourses were  Aishwarya Telecom, Reliance Comm, Reliance, Satyam and Infosys.

Total market turnover for the day stood at Rs 58476.64 crore including Rs 13819.73 crore from NSE Cash segment, Rs 38196.16 crore from NSE F&O and Rs 6460.75 crore from BSE Cash segment.

Market Snapshot

• Market witness strong session led by across sector buying
• Sensex ends up 375 pts at 17353; Nifty up 103.5 pts at 5115
• CNX Midcap Index up 1.5%, BSE Small-cap Index up 1.3%
• BSE Cap Goods Index up 3.5%; L&T up 5%, BHEL up 3.2%, Suzlon up 3%
• BSE Realty Index up 3.4%; Unitech up 4.25%, DLF up 3.5%
• BSE Oil & Gas Index up 2.6%; RIL up 3.6%, ONGC up 1.3%
• Index gainers; Hindalco up 6%, Nalco up 4.1%
• PNB, R Comm up 5.5% on better than expected results
• Satyam down 3% as co loses appeal against HC judgement in Upaid case
• Sugar stocks gain; Triveni Eng up 8.3%, Bajaj Hind up 6.7%, Shree Renuka Sugar up 6%, Balrampur Chini up 4.5%
• NSE Advance Decline ratio at 3:1
• Total market turnover at Rs 58476 cr Vs Rs 51837 cr on Wednesday
• Total NSE F&O turnover at Rs 38196 cr Vs Rs 32919 cr on Wednesday

Buzzers

• Mercator Lines up 14% on back of better than expected numbers
• Lupin up 11% on back of better than expected numbers
• Madras Aluminiuim up 10%; board to mull stock split
• Nelco up 10%; Q4 Net Profit At Rs 9.2 Cr Vs Rs 4.3 Cr

F&O Snapshot

• Nifty futures premium ends flat; add 20.1 lakh shares in OI
• Short covering seen in large cap stcoks like RIL, DLF, Unitech, R Comm and cap goods stcoks
• Fresh longs seen in sugar stocks
• 5000, 4800 Nifty put seen most active
• 5100, 5200 Nifty call seen most active

Short covering in Biggies

• RIL up 3.3%; shed 2.3 lakh shares in OI
• R Comm up 4.8%; shed 2.2 lakh shares in OI
• Unitech up 4.6%; shed 1.7 lakh shares in OI
• DLF up 3.2%; shed 1 lakh shares in OI
• JP Associates up 2%; shed 6.2 lakh shares in OI

Short Covering in Cap Goods

• L&T up 4.8%; shed 1.3 lakh shares in OI
• Crompton Greaves up 7%; shed 1.1 lakh shares in OI
• BHEL up 3.2%; shed 85 thousand shares in OI

Fresh longs in sugar stocks

• Shree Renuka up 6%; add 33 lakh shares in OI
• Balrampur Chini up 5%; add 9.6 lakh shares in OI
• Trivein Eng up 8.3%; add 6 lakh shares in OI

Fresh longs

• IFCI up 2.2%; add 28 lakh shares in OI
• RNRL up 2.8%; add 16.5 lakh shares in OI
• Hindalco up 5%; add 9.5 lakh shares in OI

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