Stocks today rose for the sixth consecutive session on expectations of business-friendly economic reform measures and growth-oriented Budget with the benchmark Nifty surging by a healthy 60 points on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
Buoyant global financial market conditions with a modest rally across all major bourses in the midst of a record close on Wall Street overnight and fresh optimism that Greece would reach an agreement with its international lenders, provided further support to the upmove.
Growing enthusiasm among retail investors that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government will accelerate economic reforms in the Budget along with more room for further rate cuts mainly contributed to spurring the rally.
Despite a flat start to trade, strong buying momentum gained strength as trading progressed with consolidating gains till the end session.
The broader 50-share Nifty jumped by 59.75 points, or 0.68 per cent to finish at 8,869.10 after hitting a intra-day high of 8,894.30 during the afternoon trade.
Among the sectoral indices, technology topped its peers rallying by 1.17 per cent following a massive rally up in US tech stocks. Auto, FMCG, Infra, Bank and Healthcare also appeared in the moving list along with Mid-cap and Small-cap indices. However, metal and realty encountered some selling pressure.
Key defence related shares were in limelight as stocks such as Astra Microwave, BEL, Bharat Forge, BEML, Pipavav defence surged 4 to 16 per cent.
The biggest gainers from the Nifty basket included, HDFC, TCS, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, Infosys, HDFC Bank, L&T, M&M, HCL Technologies, Kotak Bank, Wipro, Lupin, Power Grid, HUL, NTPC, Tata Power, ACC, Ultratech Cement, Cipla, GAIL, Ambuja Cement and Sun Pharma.
Among laggards, Hero MotoCorp plunged nearly 5 per cent after reacting to news that promoters divested four per cent stake for an estimated over Rs 1,800 crore in the company to fund diversification into'new growth avenues'.
Others were, ONGC, Bharti Artel, Sesa Sterlite, Asian Paints, NMDC, ZEE, SBI and Bajaj Auto.
Turnover in the cash segment shot up to Rs 22,230.6 crore against Rs 17,228.83 crore on Monday. A total of 12,378.17 lakh shares changed hands in 77,22,767 trades. The market capitalisation at NSE stood at Rs 102,04,486 crore.
