Refineries, information technology, banks, realty, telecom and power stocks fuelled the Sensex's second largest single-day gain of 714 points this year, taking investor wealth to Rs 178,688 crore. The benchmark had advanced by 928 points on March 25.
While the rupee appreciated from 43.33 to 43.16, the market cap of actively traded stocks on the BSE rose from Rs 41,97,125 crore to Rs 43,75,813 crore on Wednesday.
The BSE realty index was the largest gainer, adding 12.22 per cent, after the real-estate major DLF send a buyback proposal to Bombay Stock Exchange during trading hours. DLF was trading around its 52-week low of Rs 350 before recovering sharply to end up by 15 per cent at Rs 424. The realty index came back from its 52-week low of 4068 and ended at 4731.
Other real estate stocks gained ground as well. Ansal Infrastructure, Akruti City, HDIL, Peninsula Land, Indiabulls Real Estate and Anant Raj Industries posted handsome gains ranging from 10 per cent to 20 per cent each.
Bankex, metal, capital goods, information technology, power, consumer durables and oil and gas also gained between 5 per cent and 6 per cent each.
The automobile and healthcare indices increased by less than 3 per cent, while the FMCG index reported a fall of 1.1 per cent. The BSE mid-cap index gained 3.3 per cent and the small-cap index strengthened by 1.91 per cent.
Out of the 2,737 actively traded stocks, as many as 58 per cent or 1,586 reported a rise in the prices, while 40 per cent (1,094 stocks) witnessed a decline. The prices of 57 stocks remained unchanged.
Twenty-eight of 30 Sensex scrips gained over one per cent, with the exception of ITC and ACC. Reliance Infrastructure was the second largest Sensex gainer. rising by 12.6 per cent to Rs 790.50 (Rs 702.05), followed by HDFC 11 per cent to Rs 2,039.20 (Rs 1,835.45) and ONGC 8 per cent to Rs 854.45 (Rs 790.25).
