Nifty closes above 5300 on RIL, ICICI Bk, L&T, SBI support

The benchmark Nifty struggled a lot this week to finally close above 5300 mark and continued the uptrend today for the fourth consecutive day, after previous five-day sell-off. The Sensex also gained over 100 points, though there was a bit of volatility during the day. European cues were also quite supportive following strong recovery in US markets from their day's low on Thursday, despite Greece worries.

Among the European markets, CAC, DAX and FTSE were up 0.4%, 1.14% and 0.7%, respectively, at the time of closing of Indian equities. The Dow Jones recouped 118 points from day's low and closed 10 points higher on Thursday.

However, Asian markets witnessed some profit booking after seeing run-up in last few days. Shanghai was down 0.5% and Hang Seng down 1%. Nikkei was down 0.3% and Kospi fell 0.14%. However, Taiwan rose 0.33% and Straits Times ended flat.

Coming to Indian markets - banking, realty, FMCG, select capital goods and power companies' shares along with heavyweight Reliance Industries helped the indices to close in green. However, telecom, metal and cement companies' shares witnessed selling pressure. Auto and technology sectors were mixed in trade.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 17,694.20, up 120.21 points or 0.68% and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 0.66% or 34.75 points to settle at 5,304.10. The BSE Midcap Index was up 0.3% and Smallcap up 0.5%.

Heavyweight Reliance Industries gained 1.16%, continued in today's trade as well ahead of its Q4FY10 earnings. CNBC-TV18 was expecting Reliance's profit after tax of Rs 5,280 crore versus Rs 3,546 crore, a growth of 48.9% YoY. The company announced closing of Marcellus Shale Joint Venture with Atlas Energy. In the oil & gas space, ONGC was up 0.3% while Cairn India fell 0.7%.