Indian Market Rallies

(RTTNews) - The Indian market soared on Wednesday, led by hectic buying in frontline stocks reportedly by domestic institutions and mutual funds. A sustained rise in global markets over the past 2-3 sessions, reassuring U.S economic data and the lack of an early rate tightening by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) underpinned overall market sentiment. "The target of 9-10% growth is within our reach and we shall achieve it in the coming two to three years," finance minister Pranab Mukherjee told the 104th annual session of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday, aiding sentiment to some extent. Metal, oil/gas, power, capital goods, IT, realty and banking stocks led the rally, lifting the benchmark Sensex by 539 points or 3.23% to 17,231. There were no losers in the 30-share Sensex pack. The S&P CNX Nifty also rose over 3% to 5,145. The broader benchmarks such as the BSE mid-cap and the small-cap indexes, underperformed the frontline indexes, rising by around 1.5% each. The market breadth on the BSE was extremely positive, with 1900 gainers versus 929 decliners. State-run Nalco jumped 4.50% on reports it has raised aluminium prices by Rs.3,500 a tonne, a second hike in December. Steel producer SAIL climbed 4.70%, Tata Steel rallied 4.45%, copper producer Sterlite soared over 5% and aluminium maker Hindalco rallied nearly 8%. In the oil/gas space, oil explorer ONGC rose 1.45% amid reports its overseas arm has raised $420 million via a bonds issue, while market heavyweight Reliance Industries ended up 4.62%. State-run oil marketing companies advanced on expectations they may get cash instead of bonds as compensation for selling gasoline, diesel, kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas below cost. BPCL edged up 0.52%, HPCL gained 1.14% and IOC added 1.46%. In the public sector, NTPC led the gainers with a 7% gain, followed by Engineers India, NHPC, SAIL, and BEML. Among technology stocks, Infosys rose 3.28%, TCS gained 2.80% and Wipro added 2.11%, lifted by upbeat U.S economic data. DLF, HDIL and Unitech gained between 3-4% each in the realty segment. State-run lender SBI rose 2%, private sector lender ICICI Bank rallied 4.30%, Axis Bank advanced 1.66% and HDFC Bank ended up 2.50%. Lupin rose 0.56% on reports it may launch 6-7 products in the next quarter. Bharati Shipyard edged up 0.95% after it successfully concluded an open offer for Great Offshore. Adani Power (up 1.59%), Jindal Saw (up 1.91%), KEC International (up 0.65%) and Shriram EPC (up 0.23%) advanced after bagging new contracts. (RTTNews) - Adhunik Metaliks soared over 11% after IDFC Project Equity Fund agreed to buy a 27% stake in its power unit for Rs.250 crore. Reliance Media World rose 1.28% after it launched a new business unit Big Rural to tap the potential of rural markets. Elsewhere, stocks in Europe and Asia also advanced notably, mirroring gains on Wall Street overnight, and the Dow futures are now rising by 37 points, pointing towards a promising start on Wall Street Thursday morning.