Nifty surges to 2-1/2 months high; reclaims 8400-mark

Rising for the second straight day, the NSE benchmark Nifty surged 84.35 points to reclaim 8,400-mark -- its highest level in 2-1/2 months -- after the government promised capital support to PSU banks, while improved macroeconomic data also buoyed market sentiment.
Investor's confidence got a major boost on improving macroeconomic conditions after the output of eight core sectors hit a six-month high.
Fresh hopes of progress in the Greek debt crisis after reports that the country would accept most conditions from its international creditors along with improving activity in Eurozone factories further fuelled domestic rally.
Global cues too remained supportive with European equities trading firm in early deals.

After a modest positive start, the key indices kept steady pace of gains throughout the session as investors continued to hunt for fundamentally strong stocks apart from the beaten-down blue-chips as well as covering some shorts.
Elsewhere in region, barring China most equities rallied in cautious trade amid Greece uncertainty after it missed deadline.

The 50-share barometer shot up by 84.55 points or 1.01 per cent to conclude at 8,453.03 after conquering fresh intra-day high of 8,481.60.
Among the sectoral indices, financials led the market rally with PSU banking surging over 2.43 per cent along with bank Nifty (1.70 pc), technology (1.77 pc), infra (1.60 pc), metal (1.32 pc), auto (1.27 pc) and energy (0.96 pc). FMCG, however finished marginally lower on profit-booking.

Mid-cap and small-cap also zoomed by 1.53 and 1.43 per cent, respectively.
Major index movers included Axis Bank, Infosys, TCS, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, L&T, SBI, HCL Tech, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Cipla, Idea, RIL, Yes Bank, ONGC, BHEL, Power Grid, UltracemCo, Ambuja Cement, Bharti, Grasim and Wipro.
On the flip side ITC, HDFC, Zee, Lupin, Bajaj Auto, Sun Pharma, Gail and Hero MotoCorp ended with loses.
Turnover in the cash segment drifted to Rs 15,885.97 crore from Rs 17,267.45 crore yesterday.
A total of 7,985.04 lakh shares changed hands in 75,85,097 trades and the total market capitalisation of the NSE stood at Rs 99,58,585 crore.