The markets had a good session on the back of a rebound on Wall Street and strength across the European and Asian markets. The Sensex more than made up for the 143-points loss of the previous session by emerging stronger by 180 points at 17651 and the Nifty advanced by 55 points to end at 5296.
And the broader indices went a step further, striking 52-week highs during the course of the day. The mid-cap index touched a high of 7,277 and the small-cap index saw 9,300 in intraday trades, while the Sensex is still around 320 points shy of its one-year high of 18,047.86 seen on April 7 this year. The midcap index finally ended at 7252, higher by 63 points and the smallcap index ended at 9235, up 59 points.
US stocks saw their best one-day gain in about six weeks on Wednesday after a bullish forecast from financial company State Street Corp fuelled optimism about the coming earnings season. The Dow Jones rose 274 points and Nasdaq Composite advanced 65 points. The S&P 500 broke above a major resistance level to gain 32 points at 1,060. The Asian markets saw green across the board, with the Hang Seng emerged stronger by 1% and the Nikkei gaining nearly 3%. And as if on cue, the European markets have advanced for the third consecutive session, with the FTSE gaining more than a per cent and the CAC and DAX adding betwen half a per cent and one percent each.
Meanwhile, on the domestic front, the food price index rose 12.63% in the year to June 26 and the fuel price index climbed 18.02%. The pace of increase in food prices slowed from the previous week's annual rise of 12.92%, while fuel price inflation accelerated from last week's 12.90%.
Metal stocks were in the limelight on the BSE as the LMEX, a gauge of six metals traded on the London Metal Exchange, rose 0.43% to 3,038 on Wednesday. Sterlite was the leading gainer, adding 3.5% at Rs 165. Hindalco gained 2% at Rs 144 and Tata Steel was up 1.9% at Rs 484.
In the midcap space, Blue Dart strengthened by 7% at Rs 1013, South Indian Bank gained 5.5% at Rs 182 and GTL added 5.5% at Rs 464. And among the key gainers in the smallcap space, Voltamp strengthened by 12% at Rs 1061, Wabco spurted by 11% at Rs 874 and Heritage Foods added 7.7% at Rs 201.
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The only Sensex losers were ACC (shed 0.9% at Rs 844), NTPC (lost 0.5% at Rs 199) and Hindustan Unilever (weakened by 0.5% at Rs 265).
The market breadth was strong. Out of 3024 stocks traded on the BSE, there were 1723 advancing stocks as against 1181 declines.