Highest closing for markets since May 2008; metals, banks lead

Institutional buying for the second day in metal, banking and auto stocks pushed the Nifty above 4900 for the first time since May 28, 2008. It closed above 4950 for the first time since May 22, 2008.

Positive global cues remained supportive for the benchmark indices throughout the session. Even the broader indices ran up in line with the equity benchmarks on the back of huge buying in hotel and sugar stocks.

The markets gained for the second consecutive day. The 50-share NSE Nifty was just 41.60 points away from psychological mark of 5,000. The index rose 1.36% or 66.30 points, to settle at 4958.40. The 30-share BSE Sensex touched an intraday high of 16,700.56, before closing at 16,677.04, up 222.59 points or 1.35%. Among the broader indices, the BSE Midcap Index was up 1.45% and the Smallcap Index up 1.1%.

Vijay Bhambwani of bsplindia.com said immediate resistance for the Nifty would be close to 4,980-4,990. "I have been advocating a bullish bias because we have now broken out of an ascending triangle which was close to 100 days in the making and that was very powerful bullish signal. Once you see a corrective decline that would be a buy opportunity which could take the rally to termination point anything between 5,100 and 5,200."

On the global front, Asian markets ended higher barring Shanghai. Hang Seng shot up 2.6%. Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan Weighted rose 1.3-1.8%. Jakarta and Nikkei went up 0.5-0.8%. However, Shanghai fell 1.12%.

At the time of closing of Indian equities, European markets were up 0.8-1.3% and the US index futures gained just 0.3%.