After a day’s pause, market benchmark Sensex resumed its upward march by bouncing 95 points in a choppy trade to end at 24,717.99, spurred by rally in FMCG, healthcare and oil & gas stocks as buying activity re-emerged amid a firming trend overseas.
For the week, Sensex gained 71.51 points or 0.29 per cent and Nifty surged 24.85 points or 0.33 per cent, logging their second straight weekly gains.
Optimistic purchases by investors ahead of IIP data for January due later in the day and the government announcing a new pricing formula for undeveloped gas discovering in difficult areas, buoyed sentiment.
Stocks of Reliance Industries ended 0.36 per cent higher at Rs. 1,015.65 after touching a high of Rs. 1,029.50.
The broader NSE Nifty too regained the key 7,500-mark.
A firm trend was seen in Asia while Europe also opened higher after central bank unveiled fresh stimulus measures.
“The stimulus package provided by the ECB is much better than expected and this will ease the risk of deflation in Europe. Domestic equities are well placed among EMs with the return of FIIs,” said Vinod Nair, Head-Fundamental Research, Geojit BNP Paribas.
Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha passed the real estate Bill aimed at providing the much-needed relief to home buyers.
Among realty stocks, DLF Ltd and DB Realty emerged major gainers and surged by up to 2.58 per cent.
The 30-share Sensex after opening lower at 24,620.39, slipped further on profit-booking to hit a low of 24,552.26.
But it staged a strong comeback and closed higher by 94.65 points or 0.38 per cent at 24,717.99.
Yesterday, the index had dropped for the first time in seven sessions as investors booked profits in recent gainers.
The broader NSE Nifty recaptured the 7,500-mark and ended at 7,510.20, up 24.05 points or 0.32 per cent. Intra-day, it touched a high and a low of 7,543.95 and 7,460.60, respectively.
The recovery in Sensex was supported by gains in Lupin, up 2.01 per cent, while Hindsutan Unilever surged 1.88 per cent and Adani Ports perked up 1.81 per cent.
Tata Motors, ITC, Dr Reddy’s, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, Wipro, Bajaj Auto, TCS, Asian Paints, Maruti Suzuki and Sun Pharma also advanced.
From the 30-share Sensex kitty, 17 ended higher, while 13 led by Coal India, ICICI Bank, BHEL, Tata Steel, NTPC, GAIL, M&M, Infosys, ONGC, Cipla, Axis Bank and SBI slipped.
Sectorwise, BSE FMCG index gained the most, rising 1.24 per cent followed by healthcare (0.53 pc), oil&gas (0.50 pc), auto (0.42 pc), capital goods (0.25 pc) and teck (0.03 pc).
In broader markets, the BSE mid-cap rose 0.08 per cent while small-cap ended 0.16 per cent down.
Shares of state-run banks today fell after credit rating agency Crisil downgraded eight PSBs following deterioration in their asset quality and also revised the outlook on five of them to negative.
Overseas, Asian stocks ended higher, reversing initial decline as investors digested fresh easing from ECB. Key indices in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan firmed up by 0.20 per cent to 1.08 per cent.
European stocks were trading higher in their afternoon trade and key indices like France, Germany and the UK rose between 1.57 per cent and 2.29 per cent.
Back home, the market breadth remained negative as 1,464 shares ended lower, 1,100 closed higher while 161 ruled steady.
The total turnover moved down to Rs. 2,419.55 crore from Rs. 2,524.63 crore yesterday.
