After staying away for a couple of sessions, the bulls marched back to the ring this morning on positive cues from Asian markets and some impressive results from India Inc., called the shots right till the end and lifted the benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty to a buoyant close.

After a bright start and a subsequent upmove, there was a mild pause around noon, but the momentum picked up a little before mid afternoon as strong results from several top notch firms including Maruti Suzuki, ACC and ITC lifted sentiment quite significantly. The mood was bolstered by the data on infrastructure output for June. The decision to allow foreign institutional investors and non-resident Indians to invest in Indian Depository Receipts - guidelines to this effect were issued by the Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday .


According to the data released by the government around noon, inflation declined 1.17% in the year to 11 July 2009, as compared with previous week's annual decline of 1.21%.

The Sensex, which opened with a big positive gap of around 165 points at 15,008.78, soared to 15,264.34 during the final hour and ended the day at 15,231.04 with a sparkling gain of 387.92 points or 2.61%. The Nifty closed with a gain of 124.85 points or 2.84% at 4523.75, a few points down from the day's high of 4532.40.

Realty stocks had a pretty good session today. Mirroring their surge, the BSE Realty index jumped by over 5%. Consumer durables, metal, FMCG, auto, pharma, power, oil and capital goods stocks rose sharply and reflecting this, the respective sectoral indices surged 2% - 4.5% today. BSE IT and Teck closed stronger by 1.99% and 1.55% respectively. The Bankex moved up by 1.73% while the PSU index, which gained the least, was up by a sharp 1.37%.

Reliance Infrastructure, which was at the receiving end in recent sessions, closed with a big gain of 7%. Realty stock DLF gained 6.8%. Maruti Suzuki, bolstered by buoyant results, ended stronger by 6.45%. Hindalco ended up by over 6%.

Buoyed up by splendid results, ACC and ITC moved up by 5.8% and 5.55% respectively. Sterlite Industries ended 5.25% up. Jaiprakash Associates closed nearly 5% up. Reliance Communications ended nearly 5% following the company bagging a Rs 10,000-crore telecom infrastructure outsourcing deal from new entrant Etisalat DB Telecom. The deal, which includes both towers and transmission, is spread over a 10-year period.

Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, Grasim Industries, Reliance Industries, Hero Honda, Larsen & Toubro, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Power, Tata Consultancy Services, NTPC and Infosys Technologies gained 2% - 5%.

HDFC, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Wipro, HDFC Bank, Grasim Industries and BHEL also closed with smart gains today. Bharti Airtel finished lower by a little over 1% despite fairly good quarterly numbers. The fall in average revenue per subscriber caused the stock's decline today. ONGC ended flat.

Suzlon Energy, Unitech, Jindal Steel, GAIL India, Cipla, Reliance Power, Idea Cellular, Punjab National Bank, Power Grid Corporation, SAIL, HCL Technologies, Axis Bank and Tata Communications gained 3% - 6%. Nalco, BPCL and Reliance Capital also ended on a high note.

Pantaloon Retail, Aban Offshore, Ispat Industries, Glenmark Pharma, Rolta India, Moser Baer, Opto Circuit, UCO Bank, HDIL and Hindustan Zinc ended with handsome gains.

More India business stories

Several midcap and smallcap stocks rallied sharply and ended near the day's highs today. The Midcap barometer closed 2.29% up while the Smallcap index ended with a gain of 2.16%.

The market breadth was strong. Out of 2718 stocks traded on BSE, 1803 stocks moved up and 835 stocks declined. 80 stocks ended flat. In BSE 'A' Group, as many as 176 stocks posted gains while just 28 stocks finished on the losing side.