The benchmark BSE Sensex on Wednesday rose 192 points to its highest in near one-month at 27,837.21, as blue-chips HDFC, Wipro and TCS gained on resumption of buying by foreign investors amid prevailing rate cut hopes.
Sentiment was boosted on reports that foreign funds, which have been selling in the past several sessions, made purchases in trade, equity brokers said.
The 30-share Sensex commenced the day higher at 27,749.30 and advanced to touch the day’s high of 27,903.01. However, profit-booking at higher levels in some counters, trimmed some gains.
The index finally settled higher by 191.68 points or 0.69 per cent at 27,837.21, a level last seen on April 22.
The broad-based 50-issue Nifty recaptured the 8,400-level by closing 57.60 points or 0.69 per cent higher at 8,423.25. It shuttled between 8,440.35 and 8,391.45 during the session.
Forecast of a timely monsoon, coupled with the government containing fiscal deficit at 4 per cent of the GDP for 2014-15 and continuing hopes of an RBI rate cut were other positive factors, brokers added.
Shares of HDFC were the top performer at the Sensex with a rise of 2.11 per cent.
Besides, Tata Power climbed 1.78 per cent as the company posted consolidated net profit of Rs. 159.14 crore for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014-15.
Other major gainers were Wipro, TCS, HDFC Bank, RIL, Infosys, Hindustan Unilever, SBI, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, GAIL, Cipla, Bharti Airtel, Vedanta, NTPC, Maruti Suzuki and ITC.
However, selling in Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel, BHEL, Hindalco, Tata Motors, M&M, Dr Reddy’s, Coal India, ONGC, Axis Bank and L&T capped index’s rise, brokers said.
Sectorally, the BSE IT index gained the most by rising 1.78 per cent, followed by teck (1.51 per cent), bankex (0.86 per cent), infra (0.75 per cent), power (0.51 per cent) and healthcare (0.34 per cent).
Small-cap index also ended higher by 0.17 per cent, while mid-cap index eased by 0.24 per cent.
Meanwhile, FIIs bought shares worth Rs. 48.06 crore in trade as per provisional data.
Globally, a mixed trend was seen in other Asian markets, while European markets were mostly positive.
