Mumbai: Samvat year 2070 ended with a bang as Sensex soared 212 points Wednesday to finish at one-month high and Nifty jumped 68 points to close just shy of 8,000 mark on optimism festive sales will boost earnings and hopes that Modi government will unleash more economic reforms.
The Hindu Samvat year 2070 saw Sensex flaring up by 5,547.87 points or 26.12 percent, its biggest gain in last five Samvat years.
In Samvat year 2065, it had gained 8,813.26 points or 103.57 percent. Investors in BSE listed stocks gained nearly Rs 25 lakh crore in Samvat year 2070.
In a firm but range bound trade today, buying was seen across the board as all 12 BSE sectoral indices closed with gains between 0.06 percent and 2.97 percent.
Auto, capital goods and pharma counters took the lead in the surge. Second-line stocks also attracted good buying, indicating renewed support from retail investors.
"The optimism on the street was mainly due to sustained recovery in the global markets and positive momentum from the reform measures announced by the government recently," said Jayant Manglik, President-retail distribution, Religare Securities.
The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex resumed strong with a wide upside gap of over 200 points in line with firm Asian cues. It later moved in a narrow range of over 100 points before ending at one-month high of 26,787.23, logging a rise of 211.58 points or 0.80 percent.
Previously, it had closed at 27,206.74 on September 22, 2014. In straight four sessions, Sensex has gained 787.89 points or 3.03 percent.
The broad-based 50-issue CNX Nifty of the NSE also rallied by 68.15 points, or 0.86 percent, to end at almost one-month high of 7,995.90. It touched an intra-day high of 8,005.00.
"We understand that the consumer buying has been good in the run-up to the festive season leading to buying of select stocks. Capital goods stocks also performed well as they responded to the government actions related to coal block auctions," said Sanjeev Zarbade, Vice President- Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities.
Meanwhile, the provisional data released by the stock exchanges showed Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 32.40 crore yesterday.
Asian stocks, except China, closed firm, following overnight bullish US market amid upbeat quarterly results from tech giant Apple and talk of stimulus in Europe. Key indices from Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan finished higher between 1.09 percent and 2.64 percent.
European stocks were trading mixed in their early trade, as some earnings reports missed estimates, outweighing speculation the European Central Bank will boost stimulus. Key indices in France and UK moved down by 0.13 percent to 0.22 percent while Germany's DAX was quoting slightly higher.
Jignesh Chaudhary, Head of Research, Veracity Broking Services said," Local Indian equities continued to trade strong for the day with the help of bluechip companies taking cues from strong global equities."
As many as 21 scrips out of the 30-share Sensex ended higher while only nine finished lower. Major gainers were Hero Motoco (4.03 percent), Tata Motors (3.54 percent), Maruti (3.44 percent), Cipla (3.43 percent), Bajaj Auto (3.43 percent), Larsen (2.59 percent) and M&M (2.58 percent).
Dr Reddy's Lab (2.13 percent), BHEL (1.89 percent), Reliance Industries (1.81 percent), Wipro (1.47 percent), Sun Pharma (1.25 percent) and HUL (1.02 percent) also gained.
Sensex laggards today include ONGC that dropped by 1.97 percent, ITC 0.65 percent, NTPC 0.58 percent and Coal India 0.58 percent.
Among the S&P BSE sectoral indices, Auto rose by 2.97 percent, followed by Capital Goods 2.08 percent, Healthcare 1.67 percent and Consumer Durables 1.16 percent.
Market breadth remained positive as 1,784 stocks ended with gains while 1,031 finished lower. The total turnover dropped to Rs 2,617.70 crore from Rs 3,112.63 crore yesterday.
The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) will remain closed for regular trading, but will remain open for special trading from 18.15 hrs to 19.30 hrs tomorrow, October 23, 2014, for "MUHURAT TRADING".
Both the exchanges will remain closed on October 24, 2014 for observing "Diwali Balipratipada".
