Sensex ends 194 pts up on heavy buying in late trade

Shrugging off a listless start and a subsequent fall, the market rallied smartly and ended on a high note today with participants picking up bank, capital goods, automobile, power and telecom stocks in a frenzied manner.

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Global cues were not any encouraging today and report cards from India Inc too were any significantly impressive. Asian markets struggled today. But European bourses displayed strength despite the UK economy shrinking more than what was forecast earlier, suffering its biggest contraction in nearly three decades.

The positive trend in European markets and hectic short-covering ahead of April series derivatives contracts aided the rally this afternoon.

Stockometer

The Sensex, which drifted down to 11,070.33 in early trade and rose to a high of 11,362.88 in the final hour, ended the session at 11,329.05 with a sharp gain of 194.06 points or 1.74%. The Nifty closed at 3480.75, up 57.05 points or 1.67% over its previous closing mark. The NSE benchmark touched a low of 3402.90 and a high of 3491.35 today.

Bank stocks led the charge up north this afternoon and mirroring strong gains posted by key stocks in that space, the Bankex rose 2.77% today. The Consumer Durables and Capital Goods barometers moved up by 2.32% and 2.04% respectively. BSE Teck, Auto, Power, Oil & Gas, Metal and Realty gained 1% - 2%.

The Pharma index BSE HC and BSE PSU advanced by 0.89% and 0.81% respectively. The IT index gained a little over a quarter per cent while BSE FMCG ended with a small gain.

From the Sensex pack, Ranbaxy Laboratories (down 2.4%), Hindustan Unilever (down 0.85%), Tata Steel (down 0.7%) ended with sharp losses. NTPC, Wipro and Infosys Technologies closed marginally lower.

Mahindra & Mahindra gained a little over 7% today. Jaiprakash Associates ended with a gain of over 6%. Grasim Industries (5.7%), Bharti Airtel (5.5%), ACC (4.9%), Reliance Infrastructure (3.75%), Reliance Communications (3.6%), Tata Power (3.4%) and State Bank of India (3.35%) rallied sharply.

Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC, Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank and Sterlite Industries gained 2% - 3% today. DLF, HDFC Bank, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Reliance Industries and BHEL also closed with impressive gains. Hindalco, ITC and ONGC ended with small gains. Maruti Suzuki, despite a sharp fall in net profit, bounced back from lower levels and ended with a modest gain. link..