The previous day's gains were not a flash in the pan after all. Building on Tuesday's 200-point rally and facilitated by the conducive global environment, the Sensex gained another 106 points at 17,490 and the Nifty added 33 points at 5,231.
It may be recollected that the benchmark indices had given an upside break-out on Tuesday after a phase of consolidation stretching over the previous eight sessions.
As far as the global cues were concerned, the US markets had ended firm after the Fed pledged to keep the interest rates low for an extended period of time. The Asian markets took it from there, with the Hang Seng adding nearly 400 points and the Nikkei strengthening by more than 100 points. And the European markets are also looking good (1600 hrs IST).
The broader market did not rise in tandem though. The mid-cap and small-cap indices ended flat and the market breadth turned negative at close, with 1246 advancing stocks as against 1584 declines.
The leading stocks on the Sensex were Hindalco (appreciated by 2.3% at Rs 173), ICICI Bank (strengthened by 1.9% at Rs 949) and TCS (up 1.7% at Rs 840). L&T, Sun Pharma and Wipro were the other major gainers.
On the other hand, the top Sensex losers were Maruti (shed 1.7% at Rs 1434), Hindustan Unilever (weakened by 1.2% at Rs 223) and Tata Power (lost 1.1% at Rs 1364).
And, after racing ahead on the previous day, index heavyweight Reliance Industries took a pause to end virtually unchanged at Rs 1066.
Tata Steel topped the value charts on the BSE with a total turnover of Rs 50.00 crore. This was followed by Reliance Industries (Rs 49.06 crore), SBI (Rs 39.63 crore), Tata Motors (Rs 31.62 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs 26.95 crore).
Hindalco led the volume charts with trades of 2.34 million, followed by Jaiprakash Associates (2.05 million), DLF (1.76 million), Tata Steel (1.64 million) and Reliance Industries (0.93 million).
