Mumbai: Logging its first weekly rise in three weeks, the benchmark BSE Sensex on Wednesday started the new fiscal on a promising note by surging over 300 points to settle the day at 28,260.14 on selective buying by funds, mainly in banking and healthcare stocks.
"Markets closed the truncated week with a near 3 percent gain, led by banking stocks, which outperformed the rest," said Dipen Shah, Head of Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities.
The Sensex resumed slightly lower at 27,954.86 and dropped further to 27,889.02 on initial selling.
The index later surged to 28,298.34 on fag-end buying before ending the day at 28,260.14, showing a sharp gain of 302.65 points or 1.08 percent from its previous close.
"Tracking weak core sector data, sentiments were subdued initially, however, possibility of government meeting its fiscal deficit target for 2014-15, capped the downside in the index till later half," said Jayant Manglik, President, Retail Distribution, Religare Securities.
The 50-share NSE Nifty also rose by 95.25 points or 1.12 percent, to 8,586.25 after hitting today's high of 8,603.40.
Small-cap and mid-cap indices again outperformed the broader market with gains of 2.35 percent and 1.49 percent, respectively.
Cut in petrol and diesel prices today were also boosted the market sentiment.
Sun Pharma emerged as the top Sensex gainer by surging 5.51 percent ahead of Ranbaxy's amalgamation with the company.
Other gainers on the BSE include, Tata Motors at 2.65 percent, SBI 2.42 percent, ICICI Bank 2.41 percent, Hindalco 2.32 percent, Tata Steel 2.26 percent, ITC 2.10 percent and Bharti Airtel 2.06 percent.
Seven out of 30 stocks on the BSE Sensex ended in the red with Infosys and Maruti dropping 2 percent and 1.53 percent, respectively.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 356.07 crore and Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth net Rs 283.71 crore yesterday as per provisional data.
In the overseas markets, European stocks were trading higher after a solid round of eurozone manufacturing data for March.
Globally, growth of eurozone manufacturing production accelerated to 10-months high in March. Key indices in France, Germany and the UK rose in the range between 0.94 percent and 1.14 percent.
Asian markets settled the day mixed as indices in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea fell, whereas, China and Hong Kong indices ended in the green.
On domestic front, the BSE's Bankex index rose by 2.37 percent, followed by Healthcare 2.31 percent, Realty 1.62 percent, FMCG 1.34 percent and Auto 1.07 percent.
Reflecting the rally in second-line stocks, the market breadth remained positive as 2,009 stocks ended in the green and 695 closed in the red, while 96 held stable. Total equity turnover fell to Rs 2,703.56 crore from Rs 2,980.16 crore yesterday.
Both the stock markets, BSE and NSE, will remain closed on Thursday and Friday this week on account of Mahavir Jayanti and Good Friday, respectively.
