The benchmark BSE Sensex on Thursday rose by over 184 points to reclaim the 26,000-level and ended the day at almost three-week high on broad buying, sparked by capital inflows and softening wholesale price based inflation.
After resuming trade on a positive note, the 30-share BSE index remained in the positive terrain throughout the day before finishing 184.28 points or 0.71 percent higher at 26,103.23, a level not seen since July 25 when it had ended at 26,126.75.
The Sensex had, however, regained 26,000 level on July 30 when it ended the day at 26,087.42.
Rising for four days continuously, bellwether index has recorded a gain of 774 points or 3.06 percent.
"Markets rose by more than 0.5 percent on Friday and by more than 3 percent for the week on the back of expectations of further reforms from the Government and reduced concerns on the geo-political situation across the world," said Dipen Shah, Head of Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities.
Buying support was strong that even weakness in Asian and European markets did not impact sentiment, brokers said.
Of the 12 sectoral BSE indices, 10 closed the day with marked gains. Consumer durables, realty, capital goods, metal, oil&gas and power shares took the lead, while IT and teck finished slightly lower.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 718.27 crore yesterday, as per provisional data with stock exchanges, boosting the investors confidence.
Meanwhile, inflation, as measured by Wholesale Price Index (WPI) dipped to five-month low of 5.19 percent in July from 5.43 percent last month and 5.84 percent in July 2013.
The broader 50-issue Nifty of the NSE failed to cross 7,800-mark, but rose 52.15 points or 0.67 percent to three-week high of 7,791.70.
The BSE and NSE will remain closed tomorrow in view of Independence Day celebrations.
Major Sensex gainers included Gail India (3.79 percent), SSLT (2.80 percent), Tata Motors (2.53 percent), Tata Power (2.37 percent), ONGC (2.03 percent), Cipla (1.98 percent), Larsen (1.96 percent)
Hero Motocorp dropped by 2.69 percent and HDFC 1.44 percent
Among the BSE sectoral indices, consumer durables rose by 2.08 percent, followed by Metal 1.94 percent, consumer goods 1.78 percent, Realty 1.75 percent, Power 1.49 percent, Oil&Gas 1.42 percent, HC 1.17 percent and Bankex 1.08 percent.
The overall market breadth turned higher as 1,650 stocks finished in the green, 1,261 stocks ended in the red while 125 ruled steady.
The total turnover fell to Rs 2,591.77 crore from Rs 3,134.65 crore yesterday.
Asian stocks ended mixed with downward bias. Key benchmark indices in Japan and South Korea ended better while from China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan finished lower.
European markets were trading weak in their late morning deals on weaker-than-estimated economic-growth figures from France and Germany. The CAC and the DAX were down by 0.36 percent each while the FTSE was up by 0.14 percent.
