Poll results add fuel to pullback rally

Mumbai: Equity benchmarks maintained their winning momentum for the third session running on Thursday, buoyed by a bullish trend in Asian markets and State election results being in line with expectations. A strengthening rupee added to the momentum despite uncertainties related to the Ukraine crisis, traders said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex opened on a firm footing and zoomed over 1,500 points in intra-day trade, before paring some gains to end at 55,464.39, up 817.06 points or 1.50 per cent. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty jumped 249.55 points or 1.53 per cent to close at 16,594.90.

Hindustan Unilever Ltd hogged the limelight in the Sensex pack, surging 5.17 per cent, followed by Tata Steel, SBI, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Nestle and Maruti Suzuki. Only three counters ended in the red -- Tech Mahindra, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and TCS, slipping up to 1.28 per cent.

On the political front, the BJP raced towards a second straight win in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh and dominated the score chart in three other states -- Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa. The Aam Aadmi Party announced its national presence with a landslide victory in Punjab, while the Congress came a cropper.

"With hopes of progress in high-level talks between Russia and Ukraine and a surge in the Asian market, the Indian market started with a strong gap-up. The outperformance was supported by positive state election results being in line with expectations. However, a weak western market ahead of ECB and US CPI data and rise in crude prices added volatility in between," said Vinod Nair, head (research) at Geojit Financial Services.

Mohit Nigam, head (PMS), Hem Securities, said: "The market's optimism has been fuelled by the prospect of a favourable outcome from the Russia-Ukraine talks. The BJP's strong showing in the state elections encouraged the bullish mood even further."

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their selling spree in Indian markets as they offloaded shares worth Rs 4,818.71 crore on a net basis on Wednesday, according to exchange data.

In the broader market, the BSE smallcap and midcap indices jumped as much as 1.18 per cent. All BSE sectoral indices settled in the green, with FMCG, realty, metal and bank climbing up to 2.68 per cent. A total of 2,433 stocks advanced, while 929 declined and 98 remained unchanged on the BSE.

Asian markets followed Wall Street higher as crude oil prices retreated from multi-year highs, while Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers began talks in Turkey. However, European stock exchanges were trading lower in the afternoon session.