Nifty closes above 5,000; Auto, Metal indices rally 4 per cent

The benchmark Nifty saw a spectacular rally of over 100 points in trade today and continued the Budget session's positive mood for the second consecutive day. It closed above the psychological 5000 mark for the first time in last 24 sessions while the Sensex surged over 350 points.

According to Gautam Shah of JM Financial, the markets were expected to rally 5-7% in the near-term. ''They have already seen a breakout,'' he added. "Two very important patterns, a symmetrical triangle breakout and inverse head & shoulder pattern breakout, give you a target of about 5200 on the Nifty that could be achieved over the next few weeks," he said.

Buying was seen across all the sectors barring shares of government oil & gas, select realty and capital goods companies. Auto, bank and metal were the leading sectors; respective indices gained 2.3-4.3%.

Tata Motors was the top gainer among largecaps, shot up over 12% post good monthly sales numbers. Its total sales (including exports) for the month of February 2010 were 69,427 vehicles, a growth of 58% over 43,811 vehicles sold in February 2009. CLSA has upgraded the company's share to buy from outperform. Moody's also reviewed Tata Motors' B3 rating for possible upgrade.

Among other auto stocks, Maruti was up 2%, as its February sales rose 1% YoY. M&M surged 4.9%, as its February sales jumped 39.5%. Hero Honda gained just 0.95%.

Tata Steel from the metal space was the second star, rallied over 6% on short covering. Sterlite Industries, Jindal Steel, Hindalco and SAIL were up 3-4%.