Mumbai: Snapping a three-day losing streak, Indian markets Thursday staged a pullback rally on the back of frantic buying as the benchmark Nifty index soared by 106 points to close above the 7,800-level amid upbeat global cues.
Notwithstanding prevailing slowing and uncertain global conditions, investors returned to the market for hunting fundamentally strong stocks, which have been beaten down sharply in the recent sell-off.
Nifty had lost over 285 points in the last three sessions to hit fresh 13-months low spooked by China-led economic slowdown fears.
Financial markets across Asia enjoyed a relief rally bolstered by strong finish on Wall Street overnight, while Europe stocks are firmly higher ahead of the European Central Bank (ECB) rate decision later in the day.
The recovery was spearheaded by an especially strong performance in rate sensitive counters on expectations of interest rate cut by the apex bank.
Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian on Wednesday said that concerns about deflation threats have re-emerged and the RBI needs to act swiftly to lower interest rates against the backdrop of unexpected growth slippage in June quarter to 7 percent from 7.5 percent.
Meanwhile, the IMF has urged the world's leading central banks to refrain from raising interest rates as global growth will be weaker than previously expected following recent turmoil on financial and currency markets worldwide.
The 50-share NSE index resumed firmly higher at 7,774.45 and hovered between 7,845.60 and 7,754.05 before ending at 7,823, revealing a healthy gain of 106 points or 1.37 percent.
On the sectoral front, realty topped its peers, up by (4.71 percent) followed by metal (2.43 percent), Bank Nifty (1.86 percent), infra (1.70 percent), media (1.47 percent), PSU Banks (1.35 percent), auto (1.31 percent), energy (0.93 percent) and IT (0.59 percent).
However, healthcare slipped by 0.18 percent.
Mid-cap and small-cap too rallied by 1.11 percent and 1.32 percent, respectively.
Leading contributors to Nifty rally included HDFC, L&T, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, Kotak Bank, Maruti, Ultratech, IndusInd, ICICI Bank, Asian Paint, Wipro, ONGC, TCS, Reliance, Tata Steel, Ambuja Cem, Bank of Baroda, Bajaj Auto, Zee, Cairn India and Hindalco.
Key losers were Idea, Bosch, Sun Pharma, Lupin, ITC and Hero MotoCorp.
Turnover in the cash segment dropped to Rs 15,059.88 crore from Rs 18,130.28 crore on Wednesday.
A total of 7,268.37 lakh shares changed hands in 7,174,856 trades and the total market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 9,387,823 crore.
