Strong rally in RIL, SBI, metals helps Nifty end over 4800

The Nifty maintained its uptrend for the third consecutive day and closed above another milestone - 4800 for the first time since May 30, 2008. Heavyweights like Reliance Industries & SBI, which were underperformer for a long time, rallied on the back of institutional buying. Metal stocks surged on the back of upsurge in base metals.

Global cues were also positive today. Asian markets ended higher; Hang Seng was up 2.14% and Shanghai rose 1.71%. Jakarta and Taiwan Weighted gained 1.2% each. Nikkei, Straits Times and Kospi were up 0.7% each. European markets gained for the third day; they were up 0.5% each, at the time of closing of Indian equities. Mining stocks surged post rise in gold, which surpassed the USD 1000/ounce.The US index futures were also up 0.3-0.9%, indicating positive US opening.

The 50-share NSE Nifty went up 0.47% or 22.35 points, to settle at 4805.25, after seeing an intraday high of 4842.20. The 30-share BSE Sensex shut shop at 16,123.67, up 107.35 points or 0.67%, after hitting a day's high of 16,232.16. These indices surged 4.6% and 4.7% in three days, respectively.

Bharti Airtel, L&T, BHEL, Reliance Infrastructure, Hero Honda, TCS and Grasim were the other gainers. Selling in FMCG, auto (four-wheeler), pharma, select technology and private banking stocks along with Reliance Communication capped the gains and wiped out 108 points on the Sensex and 37 points on the Nifty from the day's high.

Reliance Industries shot up 3.73%, to close at 2,075.15 on huge volumes, which increased 76.57%, to 1,413,309 shares as against 5-day average of 800,441 shares.

SBI, India's largest bank, surged 4.36% to 1,894.15, which was moving closer to its 52-week high of 1,935. Its volumes increased 175.06% to 801,937 shares, compared to its 5-day average of 291,548 shares.