Nifty closes above 5300 for 1st time in 25 months

The benchmark Nifty made fresh 52-week high today and even closed above the psychological 5300 mark for the first time since February 15, 2008. Positive global cues, and buying in capital goods, banking & financial, realty, cement, telecom, FMCG and select oil & gas helped the Nifty and Sensex to close at more than two-year high.

The Indian markets are on strong wicket and Sensex is likely to inch towards 18,100-18,300 levels, believes Gautam Shah, VP-Financial Services, JM Financial. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, Shah said markets are headed northwards and there is no evidence yet that they are topping out. Nifty, he believes, will move towards 5400-5430 levels.

He maintains a medium-term target for Sensex at 19,000 and Nifty at 5,550 while immediate trading support for each are at 17,250 and 5,170 levels respectively.

Reliance Industries was one of the leaders, which helped the Nifty to make new 52-week high of 5329.55 during the day. However, the share slipped into red in last couple of hours and ended down 0.65%. Technology, select metal and power stocks were also under pressure, which capped the gains to major extent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 17,711.35, up 66.59 points or 0.38%, after hitting new 52-week high of 17711. The 50-share NSE Nifty rose 0.39% or 20.85 points to settle at 5302.85. The Nifty April future ended with 21 points premium, as per provisional data.

Today's new listing - DQ Entertainment received overwhelming response on day one though it witnessed some profit booking in the second half of trade. It ended at Rs 108.55, a premium of 35.69% over its issue price of Rs 80 per share, after seeing day's high of Rs 140.