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Nifty ends above 5,400 after 6-months, Sensex up 123 points

Another foreign player Bahrain Telecommunications (Batelco) has already gone a step further and exited from the country, as it was getting "very uneasy" in India.

Irate passengers at a closed Kingfisher Airlines counter, Mumbai airport - Source: AP
Irate passengers at a closed Kingfisher Airlines counter, Mumbai airport - Source: AP

India's benchmark Nifty index closed at the highest mark in over six months Thursday. The Nifty advanced 44.20 points or 0.82% to end at 5,412.35. It had last closed above the 5,400 mark on 3 August, 2011.

The 30-stock Sensex index closed at 17,830.75, gaining 123.43 points or 0.7%. Stocks made a sharp recovery in the last hour of trade. The Sensex closed 220 points off the day's low while the Nifty ended 75 points higher than intraday lows.

The gains came after European stocks rebounded. Global markets have been subdued because of Greece's inability to clinch a deal with private investors that will pave the way for much need bailout money. The Dow closed flat yesterday and Asian markets ended mixed today.

Most analysts agreed the rally is liquidity driven but there was a consensus that Indian markets were attractively valued which justified these flows.

"The markets have seen a 17% move in the last 38 sessions. Markets should take a breather... but they are showing a lot of resilience," Rajen Shah, Chief Investment Officer of Angel Broking told NDTV Profit. Shah said the markets can go to 21,000 in 12 months but rising crude prices may puncture the rally.

"We are positive on Indian markets for two reasons... The big difference is 2011 was a year of monetary tightening while 2012 looks like a monetary easing year. Markets react positively to monetary easing. Secondly, the big issues of last year -politics, issues in implementation of policies, budget approval- seem to be bottoming out in 2012," Gautam Chhaochharia, Executive Director and Head of India Mid Cap Research at UBS Securities, told NDTV Profit today.

Banking stocks (1.8%) supported the late rally. High beta stocks like metals (2%) and realty (1.9%) also saw sustained buying interest. IT (1.1%) stocks also rebounded from the day's low. Energy (-0.24%) and capital goods (-0.11%) stocks declined marginally.
Among individual stocks, Bharti Airtel (-1.1%) closed lower for the second straight day on the back of weak Q3 numbers. Hindalco (-1%) closed off the day's high after the company reported an 11% jump in revenues. Net profit dipped 2% on account of higher input costs.

Tata Steel (0.3%) recovered to end higher. The company will report Q3 earnings later today.

Realty and infra stocks were among the most traded stocks today. Unitech (4.7%), Suzlon (5.7%), HDIL (8.7%), IVRCL (7.5%), Jaiprakash Associates (2%) and Lanco Infra (2%) were among the most traded stocks today.

Nifty gainers included Reliance Power (5.1%), Sterlite (4.7%), JSPL (3.8%), SAIL (3.7%) and BPCL (3.6%). Sun Pharma (-1.4%), Grasim (-1.3%) and DLF (-1.3%) were the top losers on the Nifty.

The market breadth was positive with nearly 70% stocks rising on the broader BSE 500 index.