Oil, banking stocks fuel rally, Nifty ends above 4,900

After slipping for three consecutive days this week, the benchmark indices reversed the trend and ended nearly 2% up on Thursday, amid firm European cues, led by banks, oil and gas shares.

The 30-share Sensex ended at 16,222 up 274 points or 1.72% and the 50-share Nifty ended at 4,921 up by 86 points or 1.77%. The Sensex and the Nifty touched an intra-day high of 16,252 levels and 4,932 mark, respectively.

Meanwhile, the rupee today depreciated by 21 paise to 56.21 against the US dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market in early trade, following strong demand for the American currency from importers amid concerns over deepening eurozone crisis.

On the global front, Asian markets ended on a mixed note. Japan's Nikkei average bounced to a modest gain on Thursday after a last-minute rally, likely triggered by a bout of short-covering in low volume by short-term investors as long-term market players stood still amid euro zone uncertainty.

The euro hovered above a 22-month low and European shares saw a fragile recovery, as investors braced for data that could reveal the damage wrought on the region's economy by prospects of a Greek exit and a lack of progress in tackling the debt crisis. CAC, DAX and FTSE have gained by almost 1% each.

Back home, all the sectoral indices ended in green zone. BSE Bankex and Oil & Gas indices zoomed by 2% followed by counters like Metal, PSU, Auto, Capital Goods, Power, Technology, Realty and Healthcare, all surging by nearly 1%.

From the banking and financial space, HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and SBI surged between 1-4.5%.

ONGC was the top Sensex gainer, up almost 6% as the subsidy burden on the company would get reduced after the government late Wednesday hiked petrol prices.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel gained by nearly 6%. Bharti Airtel, India's biggest mobile phone carrier, said on Thursday it had signed a pact to buy a 49% stake in Qualcomm Inc's fourth-generation (4G) broadband venture in the country for Rs 921 crore

Index heavyweights Reliance Industries and Infosys gained over 1%.

Most

auto shares recovered from day's low and ended firm. Auto shares witnessed selling pressure in early trades on concerns that the petrol hike would further slowdown sales of petrol driven vehicles.

The hike in petrol price will severely affect the sales of entry level cars, which are mainly petrol driven.

This will also, result in inventory pile up of petrol vehicles as more and more consumers will opt for diesel vehicles, according to a PTI report. Tata Motors, M&M  and Bajaj Auto gained between 1-2%.

However, Maruti Suzuki declined by nearly 1%.

Other notable gainers included JSPL, Hindalco, Wipro, L&T, Sterlite and NTPC.

Meanwhile, BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices closed higher by almost 0.8%.

The market breadth in BSE ended healthy with 1,546 shares advancing and 1,139 shares declining.

Smart Moves

Pantaloon Retail (India) rallied 9% on reports that Mitsubishi Corporation the Japanese giant propose to buy stake in Big Bazaar, Future Group's flagship retail business

Shree Ganesh Jewellery House gained 20% at Rs 85.60 after reporting over seven-fold surged in net profit at Rs 160 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2012, due to lower raw material cost.

Aurobindo Pharma surged 7% to Rs 115 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Welspun India rose 5% at Rs 49.60 after promoters of the company proposed to make an open offer to acquire additional 23.17 million shares of the company at price not exceeding Rs 54 per share.