Markets see biggest single-day gain in 2009 led by financials

Today's session was the strongest session for the benchmark indices in the year 2009. The markets continued their northward journey on the back of strong global cues. Short covering in rate sensitive and fresh long build up in major heavyweights boosted the markets higher.

The Nifty closed above the 2700 mark, after seven sessions while the Sensex ended above 8700 level, after eight sessions. Banking & financial, technology, metal, oil & gas and capital goods stocks led this rally followed by auto, realty and FMCG stocks.

The 30-share Sensex touched an intraday high of 8,793.21, before closing the day at 8,756.61, up 412.86 points or 4.95%. The 50-share NSE Nifty gained 101.80 points or 3.89%, to settle at 2,719.25, after hitting a high of 2726.15.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, KV Kamath, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ICICI Bank, said he sees recovery in the fourth quarter of the current financial year across sectors except in the textile industry. Kamath, also the president of industry body Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), said he was basing his assumption on the interaction with members of the CII National Council meeting.

Reliance Industries, Infosys, ICICI Bank, HDFC, L&T, HDFC Bank, SBI, ONGC, TCS, Tata Power, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communication were leading contributors in this rally. However, only NTPC closed in red, was down 2%.

The Nifty March Futures ended with 1-point premium and added nearly 40 lakh shares in open interest (OI) with a turnover of close to Rs 9,900 crore. The Nifty Put-Call ratio was up to 1.35 from 1.25. Among stocks futures, DLF added about 46 lakh shares, SAIL added about 30 lakh, ICICI Bank added nearly 22 lakh and Reliance Capital added about 11.5 lakh shares in open interest.

This rally was mainly led by positive global cues. At the time of closing of Indian equities, European markets were trading higher. FTSE went up 62 points, to 3,774. CAC was trading at 2,744, up 50 points and DAX was trading at 3,999, up 43 points.

The US futures were trading with marginal gain; Dow Jones Futures were at 7,195, up 27 points and Nasdaq Futures at 1.166, up 3 points.

Asian markets ended higher; Nikkei 225 Average surged 5.15% and Straits Times was up 5.62%. Taiwan Weighted shot up 3% and Hang Seng gained 4.37%. However, Shanghai and Seoul Composite were up just 0.2% each.