The Nifty rallied for the fourth consecutive day and inched above the psychological 4900 mark in the late trade. Huge buying in banking & fiancial stocks and positive global cues helped the Sensex to gain 350 points while the Nifty over 100 points during the day.

Heavyweights like Reliance Industries and ITC gained 3.5-4%. Metal, realty, capital goods, auto, power, oil & gas and technology stocks were the gainers while only five stocks like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Sterlite, HUL and Ambuja Cements were the losers on the Nifty. Four shares advanced for one share declined.

The markets started the day on a positive note led by good Asian cues though it witnessed volatility in the first half of trade. In the second half of trade,

Asian markets closed higher. Hang Seng gained 1.7%. Straits Times and Taiwan Weighted went up 1-1.3%. Shanghai, Jakarta, Nikkei and Kospi were up 0.2-0.5%. The US markets closed 0.2-0.3% higher on Friday, despite US unemployment rate increased 26-year high to 10.2%.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 16,498.72, up 340.44 points or 2.11% and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 102.25 points or 2.13%, to settle at 4,898.40, after seeing a day's high of 4,905.25. Both the indices shot up over 7% in four days.

On the commodities front, Gold touched an all-time high of $ 1109.54 an ounce in the international markets while it went above the Rs 16,700 per 10 grams on the MCX. Base metals also gained 0.5-1.5%. Crude gained $ 1.34 at $ 79.77 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

All the sectoral indices ended in the green and banking was the biggest gainer among the sectoral indices.
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