Stock market rose today with the benchmark Sensex closing with a 70-point gain after touching its highest level in a year, helped by heavyweight Reliance Industries and expectations of robust industrial growth.
The Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share index settled at 17,167.96 points, up 69.63 points or 0.41 per cent. In the intra-day trade, it rose to as high as 17,215.07, a new 52-week peak, but pared some of the gains on profit booking in blue-chips like HUL, RCOM, Tata Power, Hindalco and ACC.
The National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty index closed 0.34 per cent or 17 points higher at 5,133.40 points.
"Though the market touched the year high level but there was no support at the higher levels as volume was sluggish.
The market was up on the expectation of better IIP figures scheduled tomorrow, but fell from the highs on the lack of volume support from the buyers," CNI Research CMD Kishore P Ostwal said.
Since the Union Budget on February 26, foreign funds have put in nearly $2 billion in the Indian stocks helping the key benchmark index rally over 900 points.
Market is trading in a narrow range, with positive bias to close with marginal gains. Market chart suggests no clear direction of the trend, domestic brokerage firm Angel Broking said in its research note.
RIL, which has the highest weight in Sensex, rose for the second consecutive day. The scrip closed higher by 0.84 per cent at Rs 1,016.55 on the BSE.
According to the government data, food inflation declined by 0.06 percentage points during the week ended February 27 from 17.87 per cent in the previous week.
Analysts said the slight drop in the food inflation also helped to give a positive push to the investor sentiment.
A muted response to the follow-on offer of NMDC, however, weighed on the market sentiment. NMDC FPO saw nearly one-fifth of its books getting subscribed till 1500 hrs.
"Investors were looking forward for the NMDC issue. Despite the lacklustre response the issue will not backfire for long term investors," Ostwal added.
The other major gainers, which helped the market shove ahead, were Bharti Airtel which moved up 1.98 per cent, ICICI Bank (1.48 per cent), Wipro (1.73 per cent), TCS (1.31 per cent) and Infosys (0.92 per cent).
Meanwhile, the impact of smart gains in IT, banking and oil & gas counters was minimised by the declines in the realty, metal and auto sectors.
The major losers were HUL (4.21 per cent), Hindalco (1.71 per cent), RCOM (1.17 per cent) and ACC (1.08 per cent).
Global markets were holding on today with Shanghai index moving up 0.08 per cent and Japan's Nikkei gaining 0.96 per cent. However, European market were trading in the red in the opening trade with FTSE down 0.20 per cent.
