The markets began the day on a rather subdued note owing to weak cues from the overseas markets. Weakness in metal, capital goods, banking and IT stocks saw the index touch a low of 17,880 (down nearly 100 points) in morning trades.
After langushing in the negative zone for most part of the trading day, the index rebounded into green in mid-noon trades taking cues from the European markets.
The European markets too had opened in red, but later rebounded a day ahead of 91 European bank stress test. Also the US futures pointed towards a higher opening for the Dow, Nasdaq.
At 1530 IST, the FTSE 100 had rallied nearly 1% to 5,262. The CAC 40 had surged 1.6% to 3,548, and the DAX had rallied 1.4% to 6,075.
Among the Asian peers, the Hang Seng ended with a gain of 0.5% (102 points). The Shanghai and Straits Times were up 1% each. The Nikkei and Taiwan ended with losses of 0.5% each.
Back home, the markets staged a sharp recovery in the last 90 minutes of trade. Metals, auto and fmcg stocks led the recovery.
The buying momentum was so strong, that the index rallied past the 18,000-mark all the way to a high of 18,128 - up 248 points from the day's low. The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 136 points at 18,113.
The NSE Nifty touched a fresh 25-month high of 5,447, and ended with a gain of 43 points at 5,442.
The BSE Metal index, which touched a low 15,302, finally ended 1.3% higher at 15,627. The Auto index also advanced over 1% to 8,431.
Among the metal space - JSW Steel jumped 2.3% to Rs 1,201. Tata Steel, Sterlite, Jindal Steel and SAIL gained 1-2% each.
Bajaj Auto led the rally in the auto stocks, with a gain of over 3% at Rs 2,490, on the back of robust earnings and 1:1 bonus issue. Mahindra & Mahindra gained 2.5%. Tata Motors and Exide were the other major gainers.
Other major gainers among the Sensex stocks included - Bharti Airtel, Jaiprakash Associates, Tata Motors, SBI, ITC and HDFC. DLF, HDFC Bank, Reliance Communications and Cipla also ended with notable gains.
The market breadth was marginally positive - out of 3,014 stocks traded today, 1,546 ended higher, while 1,362 declined.
MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS
Tata Steel topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 148.30 crore. It was followed by Bajaj Auto (Rs 125.36 crore), SBI (Rs 96.36 crore), JSW Steel (Rs 88.71 crore) and IFCI (Rs 73.23 crore).
FCS Software led the volume chart with trades of around 20.31 million shares followed by Cals Refineries (17.92 million), IFCI (11.84 million), Shree Ashtavinayak (10.33 million) and Haldyn Glass (7.44 million).
