Sensex soars! Ends up 568 points

The Sensex opened with a positive gap this morning on strong cues from Asian markets. Investors also cheered as the ongoing political impasse came into an end after government gave in to the demands of anti corruption activist.

The Sensex extended gains in late-noon trades on the back of buying in heavyweights and touched a high of 16,386. The index finally ended up 568 points (or 3.6%) at 16,416. Nifty ended up 172 points at 4,920.

"Markets went up because of short covering and value buying. Ben Bernanke's speech has been viewed positively by the markets," said Suresh Parmar, AVP -- Institutional Head, KJMC Capital Market Services.

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Global markets rose today following US Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke's speech at Jackson Hole on Friday.

United States Federal Reserve refrained from introducing new measures to bolster the economy, but said that they would take actions to stimulate employment.

The S&P 500, Nasdaq and the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended higher, over 1% each.

In Asia, Hang Seng added 1.4% to 19,865. Seoul Composite rallied 2.8% and Taiwan Weighted advanced 1.8%.

However, Shanghai Composite slipped 1.3% to 2,576 on reports that People's Bank of China has increased the amount that the banks must set aside as reserves.    

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In other news, the Reserve Bank of India today drafted new norms in which the aggregate foreign shareholding in new banks shall not exceed 49% for the first 5 years.

Private sector entities or groups owned and controlled by Indian promoters, with diversified ownership and having a successful track record of at least 10 years, will be eligible to promote banks, said the RBI draft.

Markets will take cues from the first quarter GDP data expected on Tuesday as it will closely determine the likely action that the Reserve Bank of India will take to fight Inflation, which has remained stubbornly high around 9.8% for the week ended August 13.

Economists fear that growth in the first quarter could slip below 8%.

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"In the short term the markets seem oversold, so we could see a small technical bounceback upto around 5000 levels, as and when the bounceback emerges.

However, it is possible that the market continue to decline some more. Medium to long term investors should hold on to their stocks and wait to buy," said Hormuz Maloo, Technical Analyst, Geojit BNP Paribas Securities.

Reliance, Infosys and ICICI Bank together, contributed 200 points to the Sensex's upmove today. Reliance was up 5% at Rs 756. ICICI Bank gained 5% at Rs 861 and Infosys climbed up 4% in trades.

ADAG stocks are all in the green. Reliance Communications rallied 6%, Reliance Power added 7%, Reliance Infra jumped 4.6%and Reliance Capital soared 10%.

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Jindal Steel, Hindalco and Tata Steel advanced 4-7% in the metal space. TCS soared over 7% at Rs 1,019. Larsen & Toubro, Jaiprakash Associates, Mahindra & Mahindra, DLF and Tata Motors were the other top gainers in the index.

Meanwhile, Maruti Suzuki ended flat at Rs 1,080 on reports that the company temporarily halted production at one of its two factories at Manesar in Haryana due to problems with workers.

ONGC was down 1% at Rs 275. RIL today reclaimed the numero-uno position in the domestic market capitalisation charts, overtaking ONGC.

BSE market breadth was positive.

Out of 2,940 stocks traded, 2,101 advanced while 729 declined.