A final hour spurt in buying led the benchmark Nifty to make healthy gains and end near the 6,050 mark at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) today.
Overcoming Thursday's crash, the market witnessed a sharp pull-back rally along with a tinge of short-covering ahead of the interim Budget on Monday.
The sentiment was well supported by the fall in WPI inflation to a seven-month low of 5.05 per cent in January.
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Recovery in Asian and European markets following better-than-expected growth in eurozone economy also lifted the market mood. Hectic buying was seen in IT, energy, metal, banking and auto counters.
The market opened higher on firm Asian cues but surrendered gains and entered into the negative zone during morning trade amid volatility. It recovered after data on WPI inflation came out and remained range-bound. The key index rebounded sharply during the tail-end and closed higher.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth net Rs 399.40 crore yesterday, as per the provisional data issued by stock exchanges.
Key index heavyweights Tata Motors surged 3.42 per cent, GAIL 2.73 and Reliance rose 1.81 per cent. Among losers Cipla continued its downtrend and dropped 1.83 per cent, while SBIN fell 1.70 per cent on weak Q3 result.
The 50-share Nifty hovered between a high of 6,056.40 and a low of 5,984.60 before closing at 6,048.35, up 47.25 points, or 0.79 per cent, from its previous close.
Other major gainers were NTPC, Infosys, Wipro, NMDC, HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank and TCS. Bajaj Auto, BHEL, Ambuja Cement, UltraTech and HeroMoto were among key losers.
Turnover in the cash segment rose to Rs 9,845.07 crore from Rs 9,221.19 crore yesterday. A total of 4,761.24 lakh shares changed hands in 52,45,201 trades, while the market capitalisation stood at Rs 65,52,768 crore.
