Nifty closes at 2009 high; commodities, rate sensitives up

Buying in oil & gas and rate sensitive shares propelled the Nifty to close at new 2009 high of 5,178.40. It was just shy of the 5,200 mark and touched an intraday high of 5,197.90. The benchmark indices continued their upmove for the second consecutive day and closed higher for the day as well as for this week.

Asian markets helped the markets to start the day on a positive note, following Wednesday's 539 points rally on the Sensex. But after first half an hour of trade, indices turned volatile. In the last couple of hours, the markets gained strength again on the back of buying in shares of commodities and rate sensitives related companies.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 17,360.61, up 129.50 points or 0.75% and the 50-share NSE Nifty went up 0.66% or 33.80 points, to settle at 5,178.40.

Positive global cues were quite supportive today. European markets and US index futures were marginally positive, at the time of closing of Indian equities. Asian markets closed higher; Shanghai rallied 2.6% and outperformed the other global indices. Nikkei rose 1.5%. Hang Seng, Kospi and Taiwan were up 0.8-1.3%. Straits Times was flat.

The Indian markets will be closed for trade during December 25-28, 2009, on the back of Christmas and Moharam.

Oil & gas were leading sector; ONGC rose 1.62%. Reliance Industries, Cairn India, GAIL and BPCL were up 0.34-0.87%.