A sudden flurry of buying towards the tail-end helped the National Stock Exchange benchmark CNX Nifty to gain 41 points and settle at nearly one-week high on last trading day of the current fiscal today.
The market was trading weak till late afternoon deals due to sluggish cues from Asian stocks on worries over the European debt crisis.
However, emergence of heavy buying in the last session pushed the benchmark index to settle in positive terrain for a second session in a row.
Brokers attributed the unexpected buying to hectic short- coverings by operators on the last day of March derivative contracts as they decided to play safe rather than go on long ahead of holiday. The NSE will remain closed tomorrow (March 29) on account of 'Good Friday'.
Asian stocks closed lower on concerns over the euro-zone debt woes, while European markets were trading in green in early deals on unexpected pick up in German sales data.
The wide-based 50-issue CNX Nifty initially touched a low of 5,604.85, a level not seen since November 23, 2012, but later bounced back with a vengeance to settle at 5,682.55, displaying a rise of 40.95 points, or 0.73 per cent.
Top five gainers from Nifty were Gail 4.77 per cent, Siemens 4.05 per cent, Hindalco 3.85 per cent, Ambuja Cement 3.23 per cent and IDFC 2.68 per cent, while top five losers were Tata Motors 2.41 per cent, Hero MotoCorp 1.90 per cent, Cairn 1.82 per cent, Bharti Airtel 1.73 per cent and Jindal Steel 1.47 per cent.
Turnover in the cash segment shot up to Rs 14,101.97 crore from Rs 8,747,76 crore on Tuesday. A total of 8,233.21 lakh shares changed hands in 67,05,558 trades. Market capitalisation stood at Rs 62,39,035 crore.
