Sensex ends more than 350 points up as bulls go on rampage

Key Indian stock indices Sensex and Nifty sped past some crucial resistance levels and hit their multi-month closing highs today as the bulls, read FIIs, kept lapping up stocks, buoyed by a strong trend in global markets and on expectations the central bank would soon start cutting rates. Some impressive results from India Inc too contributed substantially to the market's upbeat close on Wednesday.

Despite a flat lead from Wall Street, Asian and European markets moved higher on Wednesday amid slightly easing worries about eurozone economy on the back of reports that China will do its bit to pull Greece out of the debt trap. The firm trend in Asian markets and buoyant results from Tata Motors set up a positive start for stocks on the Indian bourses this morning. And stocks kept surging higher and higher as the session progressed as the bulls remained relentless right through the day.

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The Sensex, which hit the magical 18,000 mark right at the stroke of the opening bell, zoomed to 18,231.35 and eventually ended the day with a gain of 353.84 points or 1.98% at 18,202.41.

The Nifty closed at 5531.95, slightly off the day's high of 5542.10, with a gain of 115.90 points or 2.14%. Both Sensex and Nifty ended at their best levels since early August 2011.

Realty stocks turned in a sparkling performance on Wednesday, and, mirroring their surge, the BSE Realty index went up by over 5%. Capital goods, power and bank stocks too mostly ended with handsome gains.

Automobile stocks gave up a small portion of their gains during the final hour, but still ended the day on a highly impressive note. Metal, information technology and PSU stocks too posted sharp gains.

Select healthcare stocks moved up, while stocks from FMCG and oil sections were mostly subdued on Wednesday. Midcap and smallcap stocks had a pretty good outing.

Tata Motors ended nearly 7% up following a sharp 40.5% jump in the company's net profit for the quarter ended 31 December 2011 and on an impressive surge in global vehicles sales. Realty stock DLF moved up by over 6%. Tata Power gained about 6%.

Larsen & Toubro ended higher by a little over 6% and BHEL closed with a gain of 4.5%. Sterlite Industries and ICICI Bank also closed higher by over 4%. Maruti Suzuki, HDFC Bank, GAIL India, Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC, Infosys, State Bank of India and Bharti Airtel gained 2% - 3%.

Jindal Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Steel, Coal India, ONGC, Hindalco, NTPC, Hero Motocorp and Bajaj Auto also closed on a firm note.

Reliance Power, up nearly 13%, was the biggest gainer in the Nifty index. Axis Bank gained a little over 7%. Reliance Communications, Punjab National Bank, IDFC, Kotak Bank and ACC ended higher by 2% - 5.5%. Ranbaxy Laboratories, SAIL, Sesa Goa, Reliance Infrastructure and Power Grid Corporation also ended notably higher.

Among Sensex stocks, only Reliance Industries (down 1.4%), Cipla (down 0.75%) and Hindustan Unilever (down 0.75%) ended on a negative note on Wednesday.

Voltas ended with a hefty gain of 25%. Adani Power shot up by over 13%. Havells India, Indiabulls Financial Services, Torrent Power, Jain Irrigation Systems, JSW Energy, IRB Infrastructure, Unitech, Apollo Tyres, HDIL, Pantaloon Retail and Adani Enterprises gained 6% - 9.5%.

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Ashok Leyland, Sintex Industries, Suzlon Energy, JP Power, NMDC, JSW Steel, Corporation Bank, Bank of India, IDBI Bank, Muthoot Finance, Max India, Neyveli Lignite Corporation, Titan Indujstries, Gujarat Minerals and Federal Bank also rose sharply.

Educomp Solutions, TTK Prestige, Aurobindo Pharma, Cadila Healthcare, Wockhardt and Bharat Electronics were some of the stocks that missed out on the rally on Wednesday.

The market breadth was strong. Out of 3079 stocks traded on BSE, 1896 stocks moved up. 1081 stocks declined and 102 stocks ended flat.