Nifty spikes 85 pts on value buying; pharma, bank stocks jump

Stocks rallied for the second straight session on frantic buying with Nifty gaining 85 points to end at 7,489.10, triggered by robust buying activities in most of the sectors, mainly banking and pharma.
Healthcare, banking, metal and auto stocks were among the star performers of the day and continued to attract bargain hunters after a recent panic sell-off.
Bullish overseas cues and hectic short-covering predominantly supported the upmove.
Though market undertone remained shaky in the wake of global instability and economic headwinds.
Overcoming some early hiccups, the bourses kept up the momentum and traded firm through the day with the key indices briefly retracing the psychologically significant 7,500 mark before succumbing to modest selling pressure towards the fag-end session.

Elsewhere in Asia, equities ended mixed with Nikkei extending losses for the fifth day in a row on stronger yen, while Shanghai settled lower on the final trading day ahead of the Lunar New Year trading holiday.

The 50-share Nifty opened firm at 7,418.25 and swung between a high of 7,503.15 and a low of 7,406.65 before concluding at 7,489.10, revealing a solid gain of 85.10 points, or 1.15 per cent over its last close.
Banking stocks, especially the public sector banks remained day-traders darling after recent sell-off and staged their smart rebound on value buying and also expectations of government capital infusion plan.

Metal and resources stocks rallied for a second day as investors remained bullish on future outlook despite a temporary pullback amid a sharp rebound in global prices.
Among the sectoral indices, healthcare shot up by 3.90 per cent along with metal 3.73 per cent and PSU Bank 3.63 per cent. It was followed by media 2.01 per cent, Nifty Bank 1.97 per cent, auto 1.60 per cent, realty 1.20 per cent, FMCG 0.99 per cent, infra 0.61 per cent and IT 0.12 per cent.
However, energy succumbed to modest selling pressure.
In the broader market, Mid-cap and small-cap surged by 1.88 per cent each.

Biggest index gainers were Lupin, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, HDFC, Sun Pharma, Kotak Bank, Dr Reddys, HDFC Bank, ITC, Cipla, Zee, Heromotoco, Bajaj Auto, Vedanta, HUL, Ultracemcom, Yes Bank, M&M and Tata Steel.
The key losers included Bosch, Infosys, Maruti, Adani Ports, Gail, Reliance and Power Grid.
Turnover in cash segment rose to Rs 17,835.72 crore from Rs 16,898.46 crore yesterday. A total of 8,924.48 lakh shares changed hands in 78,28,286 trades.
The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 91,11,904 crore.