Mumbai: After two days of losses, shares rallied to scale one-month high on the NSE today on robust buying triggered by exit polls that predicted victory for BJP in the just-concluded Assembly elections.
The benchmark CNX Nifty topped 6,300 mark in early before paring some gains due to profit booking and lower European cues but still ending up by a handsome 80 points.
A strong rupee also boosted the positive sentiment. Most of the exit polls yesterday forecast good showing by the saffron outfit in Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, which went to elections.
Hectic buying was seen in banking and financial sectors followed by energy stocks. However, heavy selling was witnessed in FMCG, pharma and IT scrips. The 50-scrip benchmark hovered between a high of 6,300.55 points and a low of 6,232.00 points before ending at 6,241.10 points, showing a sharp gain of 80.15 points, or 1.3 per cent, over the last close.
Opening sharply higher, the key NSE index hit more than four-week high and topped the 6,300 level in early trade. Strong momentum continued during most of the afternoon session before lower European cues pared gains. The top Nifty movers were IDFC, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, L&T, BHEL, Axis Bank, Maruti, Bank of Baroda, IndusInd Bank and Coal India. Key laggards were Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's, ITC, Lupin, HUL, Ranbaxy, SSLT, HCL Tech, Cipla and TCS.
Turnover in the cash segment shot-up to Rs 12,948.07 crore from Rs 10,707.31 crore previously. A total of 7,041.24 lakh shares changed hands in 62,06,274 trades, while market capitalisation stood at Rs 66,95,853 crore.
