Sensex zooms the most in 2 years, Nifty above 10,400 on global relief rally

Investors lapped up recently battered metal, oil & gas, FMCG, banking, power, infrastructure, IT, auto, and capital goods stocks amid fresh capital inflows by foreign funds ahead of key IIP and inflation data to be released after market hours today, brokers said.

After opening on a strong footing, the Sensex advanced to hit a high of 33,962.48 on the back of fresh buying by domestic funds and retail investors.

However, later it gave up some of the gains but still ended up by 610.55 points, or 1.83 per cent, at one-week high of 33,917.94. The index posted its biggest single-day gain since March 1, 2016, when it had jumped 777.35.

The broader Nifty finished at 10,421.40, up 194.55 points, or 1.90 per cent with 47 of its components closing with gains. It touched a high of 10,433.65 points in day trade.

Bharti Airtel rose the most by 4.68 per cent among Sensex scrips its board approved raising up to Rs 16,500 crore for refinancing debt and paying for spectrum liabilities.

Index major ITC surged 4.09 per cent after cigarette cess was kept unchanged at the GST Council meet.

NTPC climbed 4.33 per cent after Moody's Investors Service has assigned a Baa2 rating to the proposed senior unsecured USD notes to be issued by NTPC Limited.

Other prominent gainers included Tata Steel, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank, Adani Ports, ONGC, Wipro, IndusInd Bank, HDFC, Infosys, RIL, HUL, L&T, Sun Pharma, Kotak Bank, Dr Reddy's, HDFC Bank, TCS and Asian Paints.

Auto stocks rose after domestic passenger vehicle sales increased by 7.77 per cent to 2,75,329 units in February.

Tata Motors rose by 3.07 per cent, Hero MotoCorp 2.75 per cent, Maruti Suzuki 1.69 per cent, M&M 1.02 per cent and Bajaj Auto 0.75 per cent.

"Firm global cues and expectation of ease in domestic inflation to 4.74% excited investors to utilise the bargain opportunity. The fear of global trade war is somewhat factored in the market while, increase in US payroll data suggest stability in the economy, which boosted the global trade," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services Ltd said.

Asian and European markets extended their last weekend's rally after a positive US jobs report that showed the American economy continued to strengthen without the prior month's rapid wage gains.

"Asian stocks boosted sentiment on the domestic bourses while global stocks gained as international trade-war concerns abated and were replaced by economic optimism following a stronger US jobs report released over the weekend," Karthikraj Lakshmanan, Senior Fund Manager - Equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund said.

Trading was brisk across global markets. Shanghai Composite gained 0.59 per cent, Singapore up 0.97 per cent,

Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged higher 1.93 per cent and Japan Nikkei up 1.65 per cent.

European markets were higher in early trade, with Frankfurt's DAX rising 0.52 per cent and Paris CAC 40 up 0.14 per cent. London's FTSE rose 0.04 per cent.

Back home, the BSE metal index took the pole position among sectoral indices, rising 2.32 per cent as trade war fears ease and strength in equity market is also supporting metals prices and the long-term outlook on demand growth is positive.

Metal stocks such as Vedanta, Jindal Steel, SAIL, Hindalco, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, National Aluminium, NMDC and Hindustan Zinc gained up to 4.43 per cent.

Among other sectoral indices, oil & gas, FMCG, Power, Bankex, Infrastructure, Teck, Auto, IT, Capital Goods, PSU, Healthcare, Consumer Durables and Realty rose up to 2.13 per cent.

The BSE mid-cap index higher by 0.76 per cent and small- cap index ended up 0.56 per cent.