Sensex soars 245 points to near 2-month high, Nifty tops 8200-mark

Buying activity was so strong that all the sectoral indices except IT and technology ended in the green, rising by up to 3 per cent

The Sensex rebounded strongly to end near a two-month high of 26,878 by zooming over 245 points and the NSE Nifty rescaled the 8,200-mark after the US Fed minutes hinted at the uncertainty over pace of rate hike.

A higher US interest rate means flight of capital from emerging markets in quest of better returns.

Sentiment took on shine after value-buying in blue-chips amid a mixed trend in global markets boosted by overnight gains in the US. The US shares rose after minutes of Federal Reserve's December meeting signalled a less aggressive stance on policy tightening, traders said.

Retail investors too went ahead with buying as cash crunch following demonetisation started to lose its bite, they added.

The Sensex stayed in the positive space throughout and closed at near two month high at 26,878.24, up 245.11 points, or 0.92 per cent. This is its highest closing since November 10 at 27,517.68. Intra-day, it shuttled between 26,917.21 and 26,738.42.

It had lost 10 points in the previous session.

The 50-share NSE Nifty wrested control of the crucial 8,200 level and ended at 8,273.80, a gain of 83.30 points, or 1.02 per cent, after moving between 8,282.65 and 8,223.70.

Today's close is the highest since 8,296.30 on November 11.

The rupee showed some muscle rising 28 paise intra-day against the dollar at 67.77, which had a positive influence.

Buying activity was so strong that all the sectoral indices except IT and technology ended in the green, rising by up to 3 per cent.

The top gainers on the 30-share Sensex were Adani Ports 4.88 per cent, Tata Steel 3.47 per cent, Tata Motors 3.18 per cent, ONGC 2.73 per cent, Power Grid 2.50 per cent, ICICI Bank 2.41 per cent and Maruti Suzuki 2.28 per cent.

However, TCS, HDFC Bank and Infosys ended in the red with a fall of up to 1.85 per cent.

Broader markets were in a bullish form, with BSE mid-cap rising 1.32 per cent and small-cap 0.98 per cent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng firmed up 1.46 per cent and Shanghai composite index gained 0.21 per cent while Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.37 per cent.

Europe too was trading mixed, with London FTSE up 0.15 per cent, Paris down 0.20 per cent and Frankfurt lower 0.10 per cent.

Meanwhile, foreign funds sold shares worth Rs 800.71 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.

Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters