Nifty reclaims 8,600-mark as investors pin hopes on reform

The benchmark Nifty reclaimed the psychologically significant 8,600-mark amid hopes of further push to reforms in the upcoming Budget.
There is a lot of optimism bias over the Union Budget and rising expectations that the Narendra Modi government will push economic reforms at a faster pace after defeat in the Delhi Assembly elections.
After a strong start to trade, the key indices maintained its bullish ascent throughout the session as investors and traders scrambled to buy growth-oriented stocks after recent corrections.
Meanwhile, other Asian and emerging markets ended mixed on growing concerns over the Greek crisis and also slowdown fears in the Chinese economy, despite a strong rally in US stocks overnight.

The broader 50-share Nifty jumped by a healthy 61.85 points, or 0.72 per cent, to finish at 8,627.40 after hitting a fresh intra-day high of 8,651.95 in early afternoon trade.
On the sectoral front, Infrastructure was the top performing sector followed by Metal, FMCG, Auto, Healthcare, Finance, Energy and Technology, Mid-cap and Small-cap too rallied smartly by 2.87 per cent and 2.03 per cent.

Jindal Steel was the largest percentage wise gainer from the Nifty basket. Other top blue-chip gainers included L&T, Reliance, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, TechM, TCS, HUL, Asian Paints, Maruti, HDFC Bank, ITC, Lupin, Indusind Bank, Infosys, HCL-Tech, NTPC, Sun Pharma, Kotak Bank, Tata Steel, Ultracemco and Bank of Baroda.

Among the laggards were ONGC, Tata Motors, BHEL, Zee, SBI, M&M, Wipro, Cipla, Cairn India and ACC.
Turnover in the cash segment dropped to Rs 16,777.19 crore from Rs 19,753.32 crore yesterday. A total of 9,020.53 lakh shares changed hands in 70,54,686 trades. The market capitalisation at NSE stood at Rs 99,35,650 crore.