Mumbai: Stocks retained their winning knack for the fourth straight day as the Sensex Thursday gained 127 points to end at a fresh 11-month high of 27,942 amid unabated foreign inflows on hopes of better corporate earnings numbers.
Expectations of more stimulus action from Japan to fast-track growth and another record close in the US laid the pitch for the rally.
But concerns lingered after WPI inflation accelerated for the third straight month in June hitting 1.62 percent on costlier food and manufactured items, official data showed today.
June retail inflation, announced on Tuesday, was no better, which touched a 22-month high of 5.77 percent.
While TCS is scheduled to come out with its results on Thursday after market hours, that of Infosys is due on Friday.
There was good news on the monsoon front, which cheered investors. According to IMD, the country has so far received four per cent more rainfall than normal. The monsoon has also covered the entire country two days ahead of its normal date after reaching last frontiers of Kutch and Western Rajasthan.
The covering-up of short positions aided the upmove.
But the suspense over a new RBI Governor continued to hold back investors.
The Sensex opened higher before settling at 27,942.11, a gain of 126.93 points, or 0.46 percent. The barometer ended at 28,067.31 on August 14 last year. It had gained 688.28 points in the previous three sessions.
The 50-share NSE Nifty settled 45.50 points, or 0.53 percent higher at 8,565.
Globally, Asian markets followed overnight gains in the US, which saw a record close on the Wall Street and a higher opening in Europe. London's FTSE gained 0.8 percent, Germany's DAX 1.3 percent and Paris CAC 0.9 percent in their early session.
As many as 22 scrips out of 30-share Sensex pack ended higher. ICICI Bank was right on top rising 2.72 percent followed by Maruti Suzuki.
Shares of TCS ended 1.16 percent higher ahead of earnings announcement.
Other big movers include SBI (2 percent), Power Grid (1.82 percent), GAIL (1.45 percent) and Tata Motors (1.20 percent).
Consumer durable sector was in the thick of action as the index rose 2.16 percent, followed by banking 1.48 percent, PSU 1.12 percent and capital goods 1.01 percent.
Small-cap and mid-cap too firmed up 0.73 percent and 0.54 percent, respectively, on increased buying by retail investors.
Jewellery stocks hogged limelight after the government increased excise duty exemption limit for small scale industry to Rs 10 crore that could bring relief to gold jewellers. Yesterday, it also decided to waive the levy on sale of traded goods and relaxed other procedural norms.
Shares of Tara Jewellers soared, Shree Ganesh Jewellery House, Gitanjali Gems, Tribovandas Bhimji Zaveri, PC Jeweller and Titan Company surged by up to 6.45 percent.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) remained net buyers, purchasing shares worth Rs 290.53 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.
