| The benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex jumped 85.21 points to an intra-day high of 5,890.02 before closing at 5,876.42, 71.61 points higher than Tuesday's close. |
| Yesterday's rally was led by steel, oil, cement and auto stocks and PSU stocks also played a supporting role.The BSE PSU Index was up 91.75 points at the end of the day. |
| Dealers said oil stocks were buoyant on expectations that fuel prices will be hiked after the elections are over while auto stocks were up on good results. Cipla was the biggest gainer in the 30-scrip Sensex basket, gaining 4.80 per cent to close at Rs 1.310.10 on good corporate results. |
| Reliance Energy closed 4.32 per cent higher at Rs 783.80 and Tata Motors gained 4.17 per cent to Rs 512.35. HPCL was 1.02 percent higher to close at Rs 506.60. |
| "Expectations of a return of the ruling party and the entry of CalPERs into the Indian markets were the major drivers for the rally today," said Jitendra Panda, vice-president of retail equity sales in Motilal Oswal Securities. |
| Apart from that there was also some short covering which led to the gains in the market. However the volumes in the market still remained low. |
| On the BSE the total volumes were 13.33 crore shares and 28.39 crore shares on the NSE. However the rally was broad-based and the gainers outnumberred losers nearly two to one. |
| Arun Kejriwal, director of Kris brokerage said that the exit polls had contributed to the feel-good factor and this resulted in the buoyancy. However whether the rally will hold is something which the market is willing out stick its neck out on. "That will depend on the outcome during the remaining phases of the polls," said Panda. |
| Among index stocks Reliance Industries closed around 3 per cent higher at Rs 568.20, and Hero Honda closed at Rs 499.60, 2.76 per cent higher over Tuesday's close. |
| Elsewhere, the Steel Authority scrip closed 7.6 per cent higher at Rs 40.25. |
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