Investors went looking for bargain in banking, oil and gas and auto stocks.
Although the survey pointed to the softness in demand leveling off, a complete recovery is still some way off.
Expenditure cuts necessitated by slowing revenue growth, weak industrial activity worrisome portents
Custodian banks are selling dollars for their foreign fund clients.
Adani Ports, HUL and L&T gained the most, while ICICI Bank, ONGC, GAIL and Tata Steel lost the most
Production at factories, mines and utilities likely rose an annual 2.4 per cent in August, up from July's 0.5 per cent rise, according to the survey of 26 economists.
The economy could return to 8% growth by the end of 2017-2018, says Arvind Panagariya, vice-chairman NITI Aayog.
The RBI left interest rates unchanged, saying there was no substantial development on inflation or fiscal fronts to warrant a fresh reduction.
Investors were focussed on the RBI's monetary policy review on Tuesday which will give an insight into its inflation and rates outlook.
The Sensex ended up 380 points at 27,888 and the Nifty advanced 111 points to end five points shy of 8,400.
L&T, ONGC and banking scrips power gains in today's trade
RBI's fifth bi-monthly monetary policy meet due tomorrow also kept the investors on their toes.
On the sectoral front, rate-sensitive sectors such as Bankex and Auto gained by 1% and 0.7% respectively while BSE Consumer Durables gained 1.4%.
A Reuters poll had forecast retail inflation would slow to 8.35 percent from an annual 8.79 percent in January.
The Sensex closed the day at 27,490, higher by 479 points and the Nifty ended at 8331.95, up 150.45 points.
Indian indices have hit all-time highs in the New Year and the sentiment remains strong. All valuations are also at extremely high levels, cautions Devangshu Datta
Sensex hit a record high of 27,225.85 and Nifty hit a record high of 8,141.90 in the intra-day trades today.
The 30-share Sensex ended down 30.30 points at 28,161.72 and the 50-share Nifty dipped 7.95 points at 8,543.
Sensex closed 63.82 points higher at 26,851.05 in Muhurat trading; Nifty rises 18.65 points to end at 8,014.55.
The 30-share Sensex ended lower by 61 points at 29,122 mark and the 50-share Nifty slipped by 12 points to close at 8,797.
Based on the evidence at hand, Modi's goal of scripting a broader, lasting upturn appears some way off, says Rajesh Kumar Singh.
The 30-share Sensex ended down 414 points at 25,481 and the 50-share Nifty slipped 119 points at 7,603.
The 30-share Sensex ended lower by 46 points at 27,842 and the 50-share Nifty slipped 17 points to trade at 8,378.
Sectors such as Auto, Banks, Capital Goods, FMCG, Metal, Oil & Gas and Power are trading marginally lower.
Auto stocks Hero MotoCorp and Mahindra & Mahindra gained 1-2 per cent on the back of strong sales in the month of September.
'India needs to adopt a more proactive policy of triggering exports to China.'
The 30-share Sensex ended higher by 46 points at 26,360 and the 50-share Nifty gained 16 points at 7,891.
Sensex ended at 26,272 up 125 points and Nifty ended at 7,831 up by 35 points.
At this point of time, the requirement of the economy is obviously more investment, which will create more jobs and increase purchasing power that will sustain a high level of production, says K M Chandrasekhar.
The broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.4% each
The 30-share Sensex ended down 538 points at 26,781 and 50-share Nifty ended down 152 points at 8,067.
IT majors along with metal names Sesa Goa and Hindalco buck trend.
Market breadth on the BSE ended firm as 1,908 shares advanced and 1,156 shares declined
The broader markets, however, outperformed their larger peers.
Benchmark indices failed to sustain gains and retreated from day's high dragged primarily by the losses in metals, information technology and bank shares as investors started to book profits in late noon deals. Earlier, markets had scaled fresh all-time highs on the surprise post-budget rate cut by Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The 30-share Sensex ended down 213 points at 29,380 and the 50-share Nifty closed down 74 points at 8,922. Intra-day, Sensex reached the all-time high mark of 30,024.74 while Nifty touched the life-time high level of 9,119.20. In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap index and Smallcap indices, down 1% and 1.2% each underperformed the front-liners. Market breadth in BSE ended negative with 1,882 declines against 1,010 advances. A day after signing an agreement with Finance Ministry on inflation targeting, RBI surprised the markets with an early post-budget repo rate cut of 25 bps (basis points) to 7.5% from 7.75% which was again outside of central bank's scheduled policy review meetings as the earlier rate cut effected on January 15. "RBI's latest rate cut of 25 basis points, while a surprise in its timing is in-line with our expectations of a sharp rate-cutting cycle over the coming quarters. With inflation sustainably lower by 500bps, the RBI has in recent months acknowledged the scope for rate cuts and was only waiting for additional comfort that the government's fiscal policy would not play spoil-sport," said Dinesh Thakkar, chairman and managing director at Angel Broking in a note. Analysts at Karvy believe that further monetary policy action will depend on number of factors including easing of supply constraints, improved availability of power, land, minerals and infrastructure, fiscal consolidation, the pass through of rate cuts by banks and the expected monsoon. Citing weakness in some sectors of the economy and the overall global trend towards monetary easing as rationale for the rate cut the central bank also exuded confidence in the road map for fiscal consolidation as laid out in the Union Budget, 2015. Commenting on how the markets reacted to RBI's surprise move, K Subramanyam assistant vice-president (institutional research), Asit C. Mehta Securities said, "The unexpected cut did take the market by surprise .However, credit off-take is not dependant only on interest rates. A gradual revival in the economy would be of more help which would trigger credit off-take. Hopefully this will follow and RBI's action would prove helpful. From market point of view this is bullish as equity becomes more attractive vis-a-vis falling interest rates." On the macro-economic front, the HSBC services PMI rose to an eight-month high of 53.9 in February up from 52.4 in January indicating strong expansion in output across the sector. Respondents cited robust growth of new business as the principle factor for the increase in activity. Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 773 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional data. Buzzing Stocks 9 out of the 12 sectoral indices of BSE ended in red. BSE Metal index, down 2.4% was the top loser followed by BSE Oil & Gas and Power indices, down 1.3% each. BSE Healthcare index, up 1.2% and BSE FMCG index, up 0.9% were the top losers. Bank stocks came under during late noon trades as traders booked profits at higher levels. However, RBI rate cut may encourage large lenders to cut their lending rates boosting demand for home and auto loans and provide funds for various stalled and new projects. Many stalled projects across the country are waiting for cash to restart work. The stock of stalled projects at the end of December 2014 stood at Rs 8.8 lakh crore or 7% of GDP. ICICI Bank ended down 0.1%, Axis Bank and SBI declined over 3% and HDFC Bank shed 1.5%. Sun Pharma gained over 6% on approval granted to Sun Pharma Advanced Research Company (SPARC) by US FDA for an antiepileptic drug. The product will be manufactured by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries at its Halol (Gujarat) facility in India. SPARC was formed in 2007 when Sun Pharma separated out its active projects in drug discovery and innovation into a new company. Dr Reddys Lab and Cipla have gained over 1% each. ITC gained over 1% after consecutive sessions of losses on the proposed larger-than-expected hike in excise duty on cigarettes in the Union Budget. The biggest ever auction of spectrum by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) started on Wednesday in the morning where government expects to garner Rs 80,000-1lakh crore from the sale of spectrum. Idea Cellular gained over 2%, Reliance Communication gained around 1% and Bharti Airtel closed 0.5% higher. Metal stocks were under pressure in today's session. Hindalco declined over 3%, Sesa Sterliteended down over 4% and Tata Steel closed down 2%. Profit-taking in IT stocks led to Wipro losing around 1.8%, Infosys declining 0.7% and TCS losing 1.5%.